The inconsistent of aid are pushing displaced women in Mogadishu to get out of their camps and take small jobs to feed their children. Some of them are creating their own small business in order to find alternative source of livelihoods other than food aid.
Nurto Mohamed, a widow and mother of four, is among more than 2,000 displaced people living at the Sayidka camp near the parliamentary building.
Every morning, she leaves her makeshift house to go and look for menial jobs in the neighborhood such as helping middle families wash their clothes at a fee. On a good day, she makes 40,000 to 50,000 Somali shillings, roughly less than $3 dollar, which is not even enough two meals a day for her family.
“It is not enough, but it is better than waiting for a food aid you are not sure when it will be received,” Mohamed told Radio Ergo. Another displaced mother Raliyo Aweys Ahmed has been a professional basket and mat weaver before she fled from her hometown of Bardale due to conflict and poverty. But she now makes and sells snacks such as samosas, pan cakes and other soft foods in Mogadishu’s streets because her traditional skills have no use in the capital. “I have three children and I make around 50,000 to 60,000 Somali shillings per day,” Raaliyo who seems to be in content with her life said.
The food aid has been inconsistent in Mogadishu for a while, thus encouraging IDPs to seek alternative sources of income in order to meet their daily bread. However, Somalia’s National Women Association said the only way to end IDPs’ dependence on food aid is to train them skills and help those who have skills get jobs in the city. The organization is now registering IDPs that live in and around the capital ahead of a job creation project for IDPs that will be implemented by the end of the year.
“We are carrying out a census of all IDPs and after we finish will be training them for skills and help them get jobs that will make them self sufficient instead of relying on food aid by the end 2016,” said Amina Hassan Adan, the organization’s officer for IDPs and the disabled people.
