19.07.11
Every day, the Danish Refugee Council distributes 100,000 meals in soup kitchens in Mogadishu. It costs about 20 cents a day to provide food for one person, which is not much – the number of people in need of help is just overwhelming. The disaster on the Horn of Africa is growing day by day. People are fleeing into war zones in a desperate search for water and food, and the already overcrowded camps receive thousands of new refugees every day.
In Mogadishu, people gather in abandoned and decaying buildings. But not everyone is lucky. Many newcomers have no roof over their heads and with the sudden rain in Mogadishu, the situation has worsened. The already exhausted refugees succumb to the cold rain and the risk of disease outbreaks is growing. Yet, these refugees are the lucky ones. Many don’t survive the long way to Mogadishu - one of those who did not make it, is Ibrahim's wife.
A wealthy man
Ibrahim was a wealthy man with his own farm. The family had 60 cows and 30 goats, but six years of drought put an end to that life. The animals died one by one and the family was forced to flee to not undergo the same fate. But the road to Mogadishu is long on foot with two small children and without food or water for days. It proved too long for Ibrahim’s wife. Now Ibrahim, deeply traumatized, is left with two small children in the tough streets of Mogadishu. Danish Refugee Council's meals and distribution of relief packages with blankets and household utensils gives him a much-needed hope to make it. Around him are several in the same desperate situation and there are thousands of new refugees on their way to Mogadishu and beyond to the camps in and around Dadaab.
Danish Refugee Council is massively present in the Horn of Africa
Danish Refugee Council has for many years been a massive presence in the Horn. Despite the unstable environment, the Danish Refugee Council in cooperation with local partners has succeeded in helping over 150,000 people in Mogadishu with food, water, emergency packs, income opportunities and money help. In Hiraan, south of Mogadishu, we aid 21,000 people with emergency relief packages and in the Dadaab camp in Kenya 10,800 new refugees have acess to clean drinking water. Danish Refugee Council soon opens a new camp in Dolo Ado, to take pressure from the Dadaab camp, which already houses four times as many refugees as it was originally equipped for. At Dolo Ado, for a start 21,500 people will receive relief packages.
