Continuous heavy rain has not dampened the spirit of thousands of Somali's who are now leaving crowded refugee camps and returning home after being displaced by East Africa’s worst drought in decades.
They leave, assured that SOS Children staff across Somalia will continue to assist them and their families, who require on-going life-saving support.
Planting is underway
The planting of sorghum and maize is well underway across many parts of Somalia, as men return home after being displaced by the region's devastating drought. They leave in hope that the heavy rains of recent weeks will lead to a healthy spring harvest – the first in two years.
To encourage planting, SOS Children have assured them that the women and children who remain in the camps will continue to receive much-needed food supplies and medical services. Those returning to their villages are also being cared for: food will be provided and support given in order to help them get back to a life of self-sufficiency.
Long-term medical care facilities
Last month alone, more than 4,000 people benefited from SOS Children's therapeutic feeding programmes and medical care provided in the Badbado refugee camp in Mogadishu. However, the clinic in the camp cannot match the sophisticated services that the SOS Hospital in Mogadishu offered, which was sadly forced to close two weeks ago due to ongoing fighting and insecurity.
Meeting the ever-changing needs of some of the poorest people in the world is a daunting task for the SOS Children team in Somalia. Getting from A to B in Mogadishu is a challenge in itself, not just because of the insecurity that continues to blight the capital city, but because of the impassable pools of mud on most roads that prevent movement of personnel and much-needed supplies.
Dialogue and long-established trust yields results
Diplomatic efforts are underway to help reopen the SOS Hospital and the adjacent SOS Children’s Village that remain closed for a third week. The narrow street that separates the two compounds functions as the battle line between troops and allies of the Somali Transitional Government and Al-Shabaab forces. The children who were evacuated as a result of the fighting are safe and continue to be cared for in a temporary village outside the city.
The distribution of food continues unabated in the Bay region of southern Somalia, an area controlled by Al-Shabaab where SOS teams have increased the level of medical services in response to a fresh outbreak of measles and the likelihood of additional cases of acute diarrhoea.
Source: www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk
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