THE FLOOD tragedy in Mozambique has seen the freight and forwarding sectors unite in a full-scale emergency relief programme.
Guided by SAAFF (SA Association of Freight Forwarders) and operated by Expeditors International, the Netcare Project gathered contributions of vital relief goods from volunteer forwarders and their clients. These incoming contributions were assembled into outgoing packages at the Expeditors Johannesburg premises, and those of Ršhlig & Co - which also supplied ten 20-foot containers for movement and storage.
SAA allocated two Boeing 737 aircraft to the relief programme - and flew six flights, carrying 70 tons of emergency supplies, to the SA Red Cross at Maputo Airport.
Other help, meantime, was road hauled into Mozambique.
On the communication side, IATA (International
Air Transport Association) offered a message slot on its News at Noon page on the Travel Info system - displayed on all travel agents' computers. This kept the travel industry informed and gathered in assistance from the members.
Monetary donations from the travel industry, meantime, were banked in the Now Media Disaster Fund - an account established by the publishers of FTW and sister publication Travel News Weekly.
CFR Freight was the only freight company which responded to the call with a R1000 donation to the fund which currently totals R21 500.
Reports from Expeditors indicated that the donations of relief goods were widespread through the industry's client base. Some of the headline contributions included R10 000 worth of clothing from WACO Logistics, and the combined efforts of ten collection centres run by church organisations in the Border region - an effort co-ordinated by SAAFF in East London, and with the goods flown to the Johannesburg drop-off points by SAA.
As the Netcare Project wound down to a close on March 15, some late-arriving contributions were still flowing into the drop-off points.
Speaking at that date, SAA's Clive Watts told FTW that the airline was still monitoring the need for further emergency flights. But I think we have adequately supplied the most urgent needs in the first week of the relief programme, he said. It would appear that the remaining contributions will be road-linked into Mozambique.
The only remaining problem - confirmed by Watts and SAAFF executive director, Edward Little - is the further distribution from the Mozambique capital to the flood-ravaged outlying areas. A distribution exercise which puts serious stress on the battered transport infrastructure left in the country.
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