Cristiano Joania on a visit to Tadcaster last summer

Staff at Tadcaster Grammar School have been desperately trying to contact the head of their twin school in flood-ravaged Mozambique.

Vic Florrie, district community tutor, based at Tadcaster Grammar, said he was trying to phone Mueda School in northern Mozambique on a daily basis, but so far with no success.

Mr Florrie said: "I can only assume the telephone lines are down. The school is several hundred miles north of the flooding, but it's perched on a plateau at 5,000 feet and will have been badly affected by the gale force winds and torrential rain.

"The school we support is surrounded on three sides by land mines, and it's very worrying that some of these mines will have been washed out of the ground.

"Crops near the school will also have been washed out, and there will also be a huge malaria problem from pools of stagnant water."

He said: "It's particularly tragic that the world community has only managed to send five helicopters so far.

"We have had three weeks to prepare for this, and five helicopters is a pitiful effort."

The Tadcaster Grammar School support group has raised more than £10,000 for its twin school in Mozambique, where devastating flash floods have claimed at least 200 lives.

The group, known as the York Corinthian Trust, will shortly become a registered charity.

It was formed by Mr Florrie along with Marcus O'Boyle and Dan Clarke, from York Corinthians Football Club.

Last August, the three of them went out to Mozambique and built a school dormitory and sports area.

Mr Florrie said: "We built them out of concrete and wood. They are fairly sturdy and should still be intact."

Last summer, the head teacher of Mueda School, Cristiano Joania, travelled to Tadcaster to meet staff and students who had raised thousands of pounds for his school.

Mr Florrie said students at Tadcaster were now stepping up their efforts to help their twin school with a charity week, which would include fundraising events from bingo to cabaret.

Fears were growing today that more lives could be lost as two swollen rivers, including the Limpopo, continued to rise.

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