(ERGO) – Farhiya Mohamoud Abdulle, an internally displaced mother of nine, has been struggling to provide for her children since the COVID19 outbreak disrupted the local economy and caused the casual job market to shrivel up.
Living in Jubba IDP camp in Shangani district, south-eastern Banadir region, she used to rely on regular laundry work in Mogadishu households and jobs cooking food at family weddings and other public events. These days she is lucky to find any work at all.
She is among 400 IDP families in Shangani district now receiving $35 a month over a six month period to help them overcome the loss of daily earnings due to the impact of COVID19.
The cash is distributed by international NGOs Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and Save the Children to vulnerable families identified by Banadir Regional Authority (BRA).
Farhiya uses the money sparingly to cover the worst days when she has not managed to earn anything.
“The $35 we receive is something big for us. We eagerly wait for the month to end. When we hear the ring tone of a message received on our mobile phone, we rush to check it thinking the money might have been sent,” she said.
However, whilst it keeps their cooking pot on the fire, as she says, the grant is not enough to last them for the whole month. Their biggest problem is getting food as prices have doubled.
“Life has become expensive nowadays. We are buying a quarter of cooking oil for 12,000 Somali shillings, up from 6,000 Shillings,” she said.
“I am a mother so I go where I hear there is a job. If I am told there is a job cooking for weddings or events, we go two or three people from the camp to cook,” she said.
Farhiya is also aware that her children need more than the bare minimum that she can currently afford.
“Most of my children are girls and they want the fashionable clothes the girl in that apartment wears. We just manage things here and there.”
Hussein Gedi Alasow, a disabled father of three, has been living in Shangani’s Jubba camp since 2011, after being displaced by drought and conflict in Afgoye.
He said the monthly cash he is receiving has eased their struggles somewhat, but they need much more and fear what will happen once it ends.
“We use the money we receive to buy soup for our dry meal. It has improved things for us, it’s income we didn’t have before, so it is an extra and I am happy with it,” he said.
He goes out looking for work every day as he cannot sit back at home, despite having lost a leg as a child when playing with unexploded ordnance. He aims to bring home something at the end of the day.
Over 1,500 families in Deynile, Shangani and Abdiaziz districts in Banadir region are receiving the monthly cash under a project aiming to mitigate the socio-economic impact of COVID19 on some of the most vulnerable.
Abdijalil Abdullahi Abdi, DRC’s project coordinator in Banadir, said those selected have no active source of income, and have an elderly person or those with special needs in their family.
The cash grants are part of a project with a budget of more than five million Euros that aims to assist 10,000 vulnerable families, to improve some health and WASH facilities, and to strengthen the capacity of BRA to respond to the COVID19 crisis. It is funded by the European Union and implemented by UN Habitat.
