As the Mozambique flood disaster continues to cause appalling suffering for up to a million people in the poverty-stricken African state, regional newspapers around the UK have been finding local angles on the crisis and publicising ways in which their readers can help.

• The Eastern Daily Press obtained an emotive interview with a Norfolk family who moved to Mozambique in 1998. British Customs officer John Randell, his wife Karen and two young children, were desperate for the world to know of the nightmare going on around them.Karen has been organising aid on behalf of the British-run charity Imagine and the couple are also liaising with childrens’ charity Unicef to see what can be done. EDP reporter Martin Kirby is co-ordinating donations to Imagine from the newspaper’s readers.
• The Belfast Telegraph launched an emergency appeal for the children of Mozambique in partnership with Unicef. The newspaper has organised fundraising packs which it is sending out on request to school, companies and churches. Coupons have been appearing in the newspaper for people who want to send donations.
• The Northern Echo is organising a “Go Casual for Mozambique” day on Friday March 31, when readers will be invited to dress down for the day and send donations which will be forwarded to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s appeal. It will be the third year the paper has run a “Go Casual…” day. Last year’s event raised more than £10,000 for Kosovar refugees. Support for the newspaper’s plan has come from Prime Minister Tony Blair, Leader of the Oppostion William Hague and Sunderland and Darlington football clubs.
• The Evening Herald has highlighted the efforts of Plymouth man Nick Spence, an ambulance service paramedic, who has joined a team of ten rapid response volunteers from Rapid UK helping in the disaster zone. Local canoe and wet suit firms have backed him with offers of equipment.
• The Leicester Mercury received a first hand account of the effects of flooding from former Leicester teacher Emma Bradley, now a voluntary worker in the coastal town of Inhambane. Although they have been spread the massive floods, Emma described crippling shortages of food, drugs, petrol and rocketing prices for the supplies which do get through.

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