(ERGO) – Quresho Adan Ishaq, a widow and blind since birth, is struggling to support the six children in her care – her four children and two grandchildren from her divorced daughter – since the cash aid she relied on in their displacement camp in Baidoa was cut.
Since February, the $120 monthly support from international NGO, World Vision has ceased. It was Quresho’s only source of income. She used part of it to buy 45 kilos of food, including flour, rice, pasta, sugar, and 10 litres of cooking oil for the month, and allocated $55 per month for other household needs.
“We used to cook three times a day, now I only cook once a day, relying on what kind people give me. Sometimes, kind people bring food to our house. We are now only surviving on this assistance,” she told Radio Ergo.
“Our lives depended on the cash aid. We didn’t have to worry about food. I had a good life; my children were educated. We didn’t have to worry about anything. Now I feel like I’m exposed to the sun and standing in a lonely place, facing a tough life.”
Quresho is among nearly 500 families in Al-Amiin and Nimcoole camps to the west of Baidoa, in South West state of southern Somalia, who have been there for the past four years since being displaced from their homes by conflict and drought.
She arrived in the camps in 2022 from Dinsor district in Bay region, 120 km from Baidoa, where they had to abandon their 3-hectare farm, a two-room house, and all their belongings.
She is upset that her children are now unable to continue at Koranic school as she can no longer pay the $15 monthly fees.
All the families living in Al-Amiin and Nimcoole camps have been pushed back into in poverty since the aid stopped.
Abdi Mohamed Hassan, a father of nine, is struggling to find enough to eat. His World Vision card, which used to provide him $120 a month, was also cut off in February.
“With the money, we used to buy enough food, which we don’t have now,” Abdi Mohamed said. “Our lives became very difficult. I haven’t received any assistance from anyone for the past two months.”
Abdi Mohamed’s family cooks one meal every 24 hours, as he goes to Baidoa to beg. He struggles finding water, as a 20-litre jerrycan costs 4,000 Somali shillings, which he cannot afford.
“We haven’t got any water from charity organisations for a long time, and no one has filled the water tanks. I don’t have money to buy water. How can we survive like this? We are in great trouble.”
The situation has resulted in Abdi Mohamed’s children dropping out of Mustaqbal School in Baidoa, which charged him a combined monthly fee of $20.
“Our current concern is that our children are no longer able to study. Five children were studying, but now they have returned to the neighbourhood. Their food is scarce, and they are not getting enough. The education of these children was very important to me, and now the children are just home in the neighbourhood, so I feel very sad for them.”
Abdi Mohamed and his family, who were farmers, were displaced in 2022 from Boosti, 60 km from Baidoa, when drought dried up all the seeds he had planted on his 3-hectare farm and he was unable to pursue his traditional livelihood.
Said Osman Gabow’s family of 13 are also missing the cash aid they relied on.
“In the past, we used to manage our lives through aid and depended on it. Our daily lives were 100 percent stress-free, but now everything has changed. When aid stops, we are having a lot of trouble. It has made our lives difficult,” Said said.
The Minister of Relief for South West state, Abdinasir Abdi Caruush, warned that the humanitarian assistance provided in the state was intended to alleviate the problems faced by people displaced by conflict and drought, but was not planned to be a permanent fix.
