NPR

Students In Mozambique Are Afraid The Winds Will Blow Them Away

Cyclone Idai damaged over 600 schools in Mozambique. Teachers and administrators struggle to rebuild and keep kids in class in the aftermath.
Seventh-grade teachers Rita Ibrahim John, left, and Anotinia Marquez Bero, right, must share a single room to teach their two classes. Cyclone Idai destroyed 32 classrooms at Eduardo Mondlane Primary Completion School in Mozambique.

School is harder than it's ever been for 13-year-old Antonia Manuel Tom, a seventh grader at Eduardo Mondlane Primary Completion School in Mozambique.

She's got no textbooks or notebooks. She doesn't get enough to eat. And when rain begins to fall, she and her classmates grow nervous. "I'm scared if another cyclone comes, it will take our house and the wind will blow us all away," she says.

When Cyclone Idai hit the shores of Mozambique on March 14,

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR5 min read
A Woman With Failing Kidneys Receives Genetically Modified Pig Organs
Surgeons transplanted a kidney and thymus gland from a gene-edited pig into a 54-year-old woman in an attempt to extend her life. It's the latest experimental use of animal organs in humans.
NPR4 min read
130 Million Americans Routinely Breathe Unhealthy Air, Report Finds
Climate change is making it harder to meet clean air goals, says the 25th annual State of the Air report from the American Lung Association.
NPR3 min readCrime & Violence
South Koreans Sue Government Over Climate Change, Saying Policy Violates Human Rights
Plaintiffs including 17-month-old boy nicknamed Woodpecker bring landmark climate litigation in South Korea, the first in Asia to get a public hearing.

Related Books & Audiobooks