A cloudy day with no rain

By Manuel Moreno.

When the skies fill with a grey blanket of thick clouds and the wind blows hard, anywhere else in the world would be expecting rain – but Dadaab, the sprawl of refugee camps on the Kenya/Somali border, is not anywhere else in the world, and there is little chance of rainfall here in this drought-hit region of east Africa.

Ibdio's Story

Rain would be a welcome relief for Ibdio. Her life was hard even before coming to Dadaab. She had her first child at the age of 11. She is now a 25 year old single mother of three boys and her older son, Faisal, is 14.

Ibdio's family left Dinsor, situated in the Lower Juba region of war-torn Somalia, because of hunger and fear.

It took Ibdio and her family 15 days to reach Dadaab and the trip was tough and dangerous. Her husband abandoned his family one week before they decided to leave. He ran away with the last two cows alive. “He lost his mind because of the drought that was killing all our animals,” Ibdio believes.

Ibdio, along with her mother and her three children, travelled the first 120 kilometres by car. When that broke down, they continued on foot for five days. On the way she witnessed families that buried their children or their parents, and felt the constant fear of losing one of her own.

“Another truck carried us to Dhobley (border town with Kenya). But at the border we had to leave behind all our belongings,” explains the young mother. “Now we have nothing.”

The family survives today thanks to food provided by aid agencies, food that must last them for three weeks.

“We still struggle with what was given to us. Some yellow maize, oil and wheat flour. But it is almost finished.”

Ensuring life-saving services for children

Ibdio’s family is just one of many that UNICEF is striving to assist, not only in Dadaab but across the Horn of Africa.

UNICEF has increased its supplies of ready-to-use therapeutic food to hospitals and nutrition centres in the Dadaab camps and surrounding host communities, helping treat the many children who arrive and are suffering from acute malnutrition.

To improve access to safe water along the refugee routes, UNICEF is supporting water trucking along main paths. Currently 100,000 liters of water are provided daily in seven distribution points.

This is not an overnight crisis. It requires immediate relief as well as a long-term vision. With each life saved, and every child protected, some of the hope that mothers like Ibdio so desperately seek may start to return.

Share what you have to help mothers like Ibdio regain hope. Donate to our East African Food Crisis Appeal today.
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