(ERGO) – Mumino Sharif Abdi, a mother of eight, opened a small shop in the IDP camp where she lives in Garowe with a cash grant of $500 from a local NGO. She says it’s turned their lives around and stimulated economic activity in the camp.
“I’m ambitious and I want to improve our situation. I used to worry about getting food for the children, but today I have got a business,” she said proudly.
She is making $5-10 profit a day from her shop, selling food and other small items, and is providing flexible repayment plans for the other local families in Shabelle IDP camp to whom she offers credit.
“We are in Ramadan, people don’t have money to buy things, some days they get money and somedays they don’t. We are patient with them,” she said.
Her new income level is a great improvement on the $2 she used to earn selling firewood that usually took her two days to collect and involved long treks. Last May, she couldn’t afford to pay the school fees any longer so two of her children were sent home.
With income from her shop, she managed to put them back in school in February now that she can afford the $16 for their education. She is the now main provider for the household since her husband, who used to make $150 a month on construction sites, became unemployed more than a year ago.
Mumino and her family were displaced from Gedo region due to conflict and drought in 2009. Since fleeing to Garowe, in central Somalia, they have faced much uncertainty living in the camp. The business has given her a sense of stability.
Mumino was among 200 IDP women living in Shabelle, Jiingadaha, Silliga, and Jilab camps in Garowe who were selected by local NGO, Kaalo to receive business start-up grants.
Another recipient, Shukri Haji Elmi invested her $500 in a children’s clothing business run from one room in her iron-sheet house. She makes $5-7 a day, which provides a better living for her family of 11 children.
“I have seen a big change, I can provide meals for my family now, my phone is never empty. I want to grow my business to help me and my children,” she said.
Shukri used to offer domestic cleaning services until in 2020 she contracted COVID-19 and diabetes and stopped work. Her husband is elderly and sick and not working, so they had to depend on their relatives for their meals.
Her priority now is to clear their $160 debts at local stores. Then she will focus on her children’s education. They had to drop out of school last year as she couldn’t pay their $26 fees.
“If I work hard and things improve I can take them back to school, but now in this situation I cannot afford it,” she said.
Shukri and her family were displaced from Qallafe, in Somali Region of Ethiopia. They lost 150 goats to prolonged drought in 2019 and migrated from their village along with others hoping to find better living conditions over the border in Somalia.
According to Salmo Mohamud Said, who works with Kaalo, said their aim was to strengthen socio-economic resilience among vulnerable IDPs and members of host communities in Garowe camps.
“We want to improve the livelihoods for these families. 600 people received business skills trainings while 200 were given investment money. We have also help establish groups to support the women in saving money through rotating saving schemes,” she said.
