Tuesday October 17, 2023
Fadumo,20, busy at her sewing machine in her small shop in Buurta IDP camp/Hoodo Isse/Ergo
Six months of tailoring skills training and the gift of her own sewing machine have turned life around for 20-year-old Fadumo Mohamed and her family, who have been living in poverty in a camp since losing all their livestock to drought.
Since setting up her small tailoring shop next to the family’s hut in Buurta IDP camp, on the outskirts of Garowe, Fadumo has been earning $5-8 a day making new clothes and doing repairs.
She is able to support her family of seven, including both parents.
“It has improved my life and that of my family. I can now take care of my own needs while also supporting my family. We used to only get two meals before but now we can get three meals a day. I’m investing some of my earning back into the business and using the rest to pay our bills,” she said.
They were pastoralists who joined the IDP camp after losing 200 goats to drought in 2017 in Sunujiif village in eastern Nugal region.
“Before I got this job we were struggling; we got some aid from the organisations but there is no-one in particular that we could count on. If we didn’t get any aid from the organisations, we had to take food on credit. But now that I have learned a new skill I can take care of my family, we don’t take things on credit,” she explained.
Fadumo is saving up her earnings to move her family out of the camp to a rental house in Garowe.
In the same IDP camp, Meymun Abdi, a mother of six, also learned tailoring and is making $9-11 a day from her small business.
“Before I got my skills, I was a beggar depending on others, but now I am independent. I’ve got confidence and I’m energetic now. I’ve learned that I can do things and change things,” said Meymun.
Her eldest daughter was already in school and she enrolled her two sons for the first time this year, paying $22 in fees from her income.
In 2017, Meymun and her husband were displaced from Yombeys area in Nugal region, after losing their livestock in the drought. They joined Buurta camp the same year hoping to find aid.
When she is not very busy on repairs or orders, she uses her creativity to make new clothes to sell.
“I earn some good income. I hope to support my children to continue learning. They could have gone hungry but I’ll make sure they study and won’t end up like me without education. When you have three children in the school, one of them gets to learn for free,” she said.
Buurta camp leader, Abdi Ali, said most of the people in the camp are drought-affected families displaced in 2016 and 2017.
KAALO Aid and Development Organisation provided a free six-month training course and sewing machines for 25 women selected from the most vulnerable families in the camp.
“These people are generally poor, with no skills. They had no means of earning a living and were struggling to get water, food, education and healthcare,” Abdi Ali said.