22 February 2012
The past few months have been truly grim for mother-of-three Suldana Ali, pictured above, but new hope has given her a reason to smile again.
After enduring hunger and desperate need, Suldana is now able to look after her family due to the work of a Tearfund partner.
The 27-year-old fled her native Somalia because of the drought that has inflicted terrible hunger on her community. She ended up in a makeshift home in a camp outside the town of Dhobley on the Kenya/Somalia border.
Conditions here are grim; last November one of her children died due to the effects of acute diarrhoea. When medical staff visited Suldana at her flimsy shelter they found she had nothing.
Suldana with one of her children. Photo: World Concern/Tearfund
Proud
Tearfund partner World Concern has been helping Suldana. It runs a scheme where those most in need receive vouchers which they can exchange for food and other basic essentials, such as mosquito nets, pots, jerry cans for water, sleeping mats and plastic sheeting, from carefully picked merchants in the town.
So far with Tearfund’s support some 2,250 families have benefited from this voucher scheme.
Suldana said, ‘I’m proud to receive the voucher, I give thanks to those who donate this food and I pray for them.’
As well as the drought, conflict in the area has driven many people to this border region. There are new arrivals daily, many of them having walked for days with little or nothing to eat.
World Concern has been helping 28,000 displaced people living at Dhobley, a major transit point for Somali refugees entering Kenya.