REACT Cyclone Deployment Decision Helped by a Very Busy Lizzie

When Cyclone Freddy ripped across Malawi earlier this month, one of REACT’s youngest Responders was in the right place, at the right time, to help us make that all-important deployment decision.

Lizzie Beach’s input to the Response Activation Matrix (RAM) being put together by the Chilmark Operations team proved vital. She became our eyes and ears on the ground in the devastated African country and was able to open her black book of relevant government and rescue organisation contacts.

The huge storm left 511 people dead and 560,000 displaced. It struck largely in the more populated south of the country, including the commercial capital Blantyre, where Lizzie works as a teacher and carer of orphans and other children from vulnerable backgrounds.

A student of international disaster management and humanitarian response at Manchester University, Lizzie opted to take a year out to work for the Project Trust charity. 

Shortly before heading out to Africa, she and five other students on her course had been working on a professional experience project.  They focused on planning a hypothetical deployment to Haiti to look after blind and visually impaired people and approached REACT to ask if they could present their work to our operations team.

“When the time came to head down to Chilmark, Paul and Rea in the Operations Department commented that it was a long way to come just for a presentation and they suggested we join the Domestic Responders Course that was happening that weekend. We were absolutely delighted and so excited,” said Lizzie.

“We did the presentation on the Thursday and then did the course. We were all in different response teams. It was so interesting, and we learned such a lot about REACT’s ethos and its amazing work,” she added.

All six passed and one of them, Filipa Serranito, even went on to do the International Responders Course and has since been deployed in Ukraine and Türkiye!

Lizzie says she was also keen to do the course, but with exams to study for and a year-long trip to Africa coming up later that year, she just couldn’t match up the dates with her free time.

“Thankfully, I was able to deploy for REACT during last year’s Commonwealth Games and that was incredible. I met so many interesting people and got to know them well. I somehow even managed to get a ticket for the opening ceremony. I was very lucky,” continued Lizzie, whose family live in Uppingham, Rutland.

Fast forward eight months, and Lizzie is living in Malawi, working as a carer at the children’s home in the Blantyre suburb of Limbe and also teaching English and Maths at local schools.

“Until the cyclone hit, I had been having a wonderful time. We look after a very lively bunch of kids whose ages range from just two to 18! It’s very difficult to try and teach quadratics and binomial expressions to the older ones, while at the same time explaining how to spell the word ‘cat’ to the little ones, but we manage somehow,” she explained.

“Sunday March 12^th was when everything changed. With my degree in mind, I had been keeping up to date with the weather warnings and news bulletins. There was a good possibility that it would hit us, but I don’t think anybody expected it to be as bad as it was,” said Lizzie.

“We hadn’t really known what to expect. We have extremely heavy rain during the rainy season and at first the cyclone didn’t seem as bad as that, but it just kept on coming. It was constantly storm-force for four days straight. It was the sheer amount of water that caused so much loss of life and destruction. Most people live in houses built of mud bricks. There was no way they could survive this,” she explained.

It was not until the Wednesday that Lizzie managed to get out of her house. She had been expecting to see mass destruction, but she says it was as if nothing had happened.

“We’re on the edge of the city here so most buildings are built of brick and concrete. I had under-estimated the resilience of Malawians. The shops were open, but they had to be. People do not have the financial choice to close, even for a short period.”

It was of course the areas outside the cities that had been affected. This is where the loss of life was the greatest and the damage to buildings extensive.

“I was feeling very useless at first. I was very much wanting to get out and help people, but I don’t have access to a car so I couldn’t get to the places that needed it. That’s when I decided to email REACT to see if I could assist them in any way and the International Operations Manager, Paul Taylor, rang me back,” said Lizzie.

“Paul had been trying to get an idea of the situation on the ground to evaluate whether they should deploy teams of Responders. I was able to answer some of his questions. Things like, had there been a call for international aid by the Malawian Government and what were local disaster response agencies doing?”

Lizzie continued: “Luckily, I had been making contacts with lots of people in the humanitarian aid sector here as I have been looking to start my career in Africa. I was able to pass Paul the details of key people in organisations such as the Malawian Red Cross Society. He spoke to them and after careful consideration took the decision not to deploy.”

“At that time, Malawi was able to provide the man and woman power needed to help the country, but they lacked resources and funding.”

“I was so pleased to have helped in some way. Since then, I have actually been very busy working with the Red Cross and UNICEF delivering WASH items to different camps in the Blantyre District. I’ve also been assisting a charity called Road to Relief which delivers emergency supplies to local villages and another local businesswoman who has been cooking hundreds of meals for displaced people,” said Lizzie.

Paul Taylor praised Lizzie’s contribution to the REACT deployment decision.

“In my experience the immediate aftermath of a disaster is often in the realm of uncertainty, so trying to develop a clear understanding of what is happening on the ground and subsequently if REACT can make a difference, is always challenging. In this instance, Lizzie was truly living our values by displaying ‘a bias for action’ and reaching out to our team. Her first-hand knowledge and connection to other agencies was invaluable and proof again that disaster response is indeed a ‘team sport’,” said Paul.

Meanwhile, as if she wasn’t busy enough with all her hard work in Malawi, Lizzie has used her social media platforms and the Manchester University student networks in the UK to help raise funds too! Regulars at Don Paddy’s pub in Uppingham, where she used to work behind the bar, have raised a further £300.

“I am so pleased to help in some small way, though I must admit I am pretty exhausted now. The schools have been shut and home schooling 23 kids each day as well as the relief work has been tough, but so worth it. My time in Malawi has completely solidified my plan to work in Africa once I finish my degree. I’d also hope to remain as a REACT Responder as the work is just so important and inspiring.”