You could say the people living along the banks of the Thondwe River in southern Malawi were lucky. At least they’d been warned of the flash flood in early January that would burst through an earthen dike, wash away their homes and crops, and leave more than 4,000 of them homeless.

Amazingly, no one in the dense cluster of villages called Makawa died in the flood. But they’ve been living in pretty desperate conditions here since.

Like everyone else from Makawa, a village chief named Phanzi has been staying at a local school since his home was destroyed. Phanzi says, aside from some donated plastic wash basins and a small amount of corn that no one can mill into flour, they’ve been on their own, salvaging whatever greens they can from fields that were under water for weeks.

You can already see signs of malnourishment in some of the children, Phanzi says. He nods in the direction of hundreds of women sitting on the ground with babies seeking the shade of the schoolyard’s only tree. He says more than 2,000 people cram into the school’s half dozen buildings every night.

Continue reading on PRI’s The World.