29-11-2022 | di COOPI

Somalia. With the European Union, we help 87 drought-affected families

Sumaya and her husband Bare, parents of seven children, live in the Budkey refugee camp, located in the Bay region of Somalia. They have always based their livelihood exclusively on agro-pastoralism, depending on livestock and products from their land irrigated mainly by rain. Inevitably, this has made them increasingly vulnerable to climatic shocks, especially when the second annual rainy season (Deyr), which corresponds to the period between October and November, turned out to be particularly poor in terms of rainfall, causing crops to fail and many livestock to die. In addition, most of the wells within a five-kilometre radius of Sumaya's home have dried up or are close to complete exhaustion. Even worse, her husband's weak health and advanced age have made him unable to find another job to support the family. This forced them to move to the Budkey internally displaced people camp in search of humanitarian assistance.

Sumaya explains:

We tried to sell the last remaining cattle, but the money we got quickly ran out because food prices have skyrocketed in recent months. My children had to ration sorghum porridge, eating it only once a day. Life in our village has become more and more insecure and access to food more and more difficult, and we have had no choice but to seek help to survive.

Sumaya's family is one of 87 families benefiting from the project "Coordinated Implementation of Multipurpose Cash Assistance to Support Somali Households Affected by Crisis" implemented by COOPI - Cooperazione Internazionale and funded by the European Union (European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations). The main objective of the project is to improve the capacity of Somali families affected by drought and crisis to meet their basic needs and increase access to basic services. One of the main project activities involves monthly unconditional cash transfers conducted by the Somali Cash Consortium, a local consortium that, as of January 2018, has assisted more than 300,000 Somalis by setting up solid cash transfer systems and managing every step of the process (from community registrations to payment aggregation, reporting, forecasting and coordination). 

 

Sumaya stated: 

With the money I received, I am now able to buy sufficient quantities of lentils, beans, rice, flour and vegetables to feed my family two to three times a day and I am also able to buy meat once a month. I used to suffer severe body pains from carrying large water tanks every day, but now that I can afford clean water for cooking and drinking, I only have to go to the well 3 times a week, not every day like before.

Life-saving and unconditional assistance to families has provided them with the food and nutrition security they needed. This system is helping vulnerable communities absorb and cope with the effects of the prolonged drought in Somalia, immediately improving access to and utilisation of food and preventing further hardship.

Since 1984, COOPI has been working in Somalia, a country exposed to the threats of climate change as well as chronic problems of instability, with projects aimed at ensuring food security and livelihoods, water and sanitation, for thousands of vulnerable families.