At the Filipe Samuel Magaia Community School in Maputo province, which was transformed weeks ago into a reception centre for displaced persons, Abdul has no intention of returning to his flooded home. He is simply asking for a new plot of land in a safe area so he can try to start his life over.

?My idea is for them to give us a space just to build and make our lives. I?m not thinking of going back home,? asks Abdul Jossias, at the reception centre set up at that school, in the town of Estevele, Boane district, south of the Mozambican capital.

Abdul, 42, recalls saving his family of six after seeing his house flooded in Mazambanine, Boane, and reports that he is experiencing flooding for the second time. A few years later, he finds himself once again sheltered in a centre for displaced persons, where he says there is a shortage of everything, especially food.

?The situation here is terrible, we are suffering,? he says, alongside friends who have set up a mobile phone charging station near a health brigade run by military doctors.

Abdul Jossias wants this to be the last time he is taken in at a centre due to flooding, where there are dozens of tents for victims, and he is asking for a new space to build a safe home.

?I had a hard time with the floods in 2023, and this year the same thing happened,? he recalls, his face tired, as he thinks about rebuilding his life again.

Since the beginning of the rainy season in October, including the January floods, more than 200 people have died and over 845,000 people have been affected, according to official data.

To support the centre where he is being sheltered in Boane, the Mozambican private bank MozaBanco announced that it has donated goods and food items in recent days, including beans, rice, hygiene products and clothing. This initiative is being replicated by several private institutions, given the lack of public resources for the 100,000 displaced people who have been living in more than 100 shelters across the country since January.

At the same centre, Joana Francisco, 36, mother of three, recalls that this is the second time she has been affected by the floods. In 2023, she saw the water take over her home and says she only survived because she was rescued.

?I am from the 2023 floods. I lost everything. When I was pulled out of the water, I passed over my house by boat when I was rescued, I didn?t recognise it. I had nothing left, no trees, nothing,? she tells Lusa, recalling that that scene is one to ?forget? and rejecting the possibility of going through the same thing again.

In January, she saw her hometown of Estevele, in the district of Boane, being flooded again, with the area isolated by the waters.

?We all ended up in the village, we left the village of Boane to come here and from here to the village, but I thought everything was fine because there were no deaths,? she explains, from the reception centre at the Filipe Samuel Magaia Community School.

Joana also complains about the lack of basic conditions at the centre, from food to personal hygiene to protect the lives of her family members, but acknowledged that it is better to stay there than to return to a home that is now unrecognisable.

?I?m here to start over, I don?t think about going back, because going back means more work, they?ll always have to take the same person,? she points out, welcoming the health services offered by military doctors to treat the sick.

At the same centre, Joana formed a team with other victims to help clean the school?s toilets to protect the lives of hundreds of families sheltered there.

?The young man here, and I saw that the situation is not good, we received nothing, we were promised nothing, we just dedicated ourselves to taking care of the bathrooms. We don?t sleep, we?ve been here since 4 a.m. to take care of the bathrooms and preserve health, but here it?s bad, we?re asking for help,? she says, before returning to cleaning that common area.

Even amid the floods, Joana still dreams of opening her own business, a beauty salon or a shop, to help people who complain about unemployment.

?My dream for the future is to have a company to help others, to set up a salon and a stall, to give jobs to other people. That?s what I?d like,? she says.

Joana remembers that she managed to save only her children and a few suitcases of clothes from the floods, and laments that people in her community have begun returning to their flooded homes.

?Others went home, where there was still water, but they came back because they are suffering here, even though they know that they will live poorly at home because there is still water, but they feel comfortable there because they can find food, because life is hard here,? she says, asking for more food.

?People are leaving the centres to go home, but they have nothing to start over with, so they come back to the centres just to have a meal at night and then go home again,? she concludes.