Disaster Response Ethiopia Project #8439

Provide Lifesaving Relief to Drought Victims

by International Medical Corps

Provide Lifesaving Relief to Drought Victims

Project Report | Sep 7, 2012
Keeping Her Children Healthy: Halimo's Story

By Callie Spaide | Project Leader

Refugees wait to clean jerry cans.

Halimo cares for her four young children alone, since her husband died in the brutal conflict that still rages in her native Somalia. In 2011 she fled drought and violence, making the 8-day journey by truck to Boqolmayo refugee camp in Ethiopia.

Once at the camp, Halimo was deeply concerned that she needed to repeatedly take her children to the medical clinic for treatment, as they were constantly falling ill and suffering from malnutrition.

Boqolmayo camp was built to accommodate 20,000 refugees, yet today nearly 40,000 people live there, placing a massive strain on the water supply and sanitation services in the camp. Diseases related to inadequate water and poor sanitation and hygiene practices such as skin diseases, eye infections, diarrhea and intestinal worms are a frequent feature of life in the camp.

This March we began a campaign to improve the hygiene and sanitation infrastructure at the camp. Before meeting with one of our Community Hygiene Promoters (CHP), Halimo had been fetching water using an old and dirty jerry can. She had no idea that this could be linked to the recurring bouts of diarrhea that her children had been suffering.

The CHPs taught Halimo about proper hygiene and sanitation practices, including hand washing at critical times, proper utilization of latrines, safe solid and liquid waste disposal, and proper storage and handling of water. Afterwards, Halimo began to attend our awareness-raising tea talks. For the last three months, she has been cleaning her compound, washing her and her children’s hands using soap and cleaning her jerry cans every other day.

“My children are healthy and growing well, and my first child is now in school!” says Halimo.

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Jun 11, 2012
50% Closer to Changing a Life

By Callie Spaide | Project Leader

May 23, 2012
Safety and a Cup of Tea

By Callie Spaide | Project Leader

Dance Ceremonies as Part of GBV Community Outreach

Almost one year ago, you helped us respond to a massive humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa. We’ve been able to reach thousands of families displaced, and today our training and education programs are creating lasting positive change within these devastated communities.

Ethiopia’s Dolo Ado camps are home to more than 150,000 refugees, the vast majority Somalis who’ve fled across the border to Ethiopia. A deeply conservative society, gender-based violence (GBV) is pervasive in Somalia and women are often relegated second-class status.

Since 2009, International Medical Corps’s GBV awareness and prevention programs in the Dolo Ado camps provide key services to survivors, including psychosocial support and referral services. We also work to change attitudes towards gender-roles and GBV within the community: our teams holds community events like tea talks, dance ceremonies, and skits to educate and mobilize community members.

Sadiya was just one of the women who’ve benefited from our work. After losing three of her children to the drought in Somalia, she fled with her remaining children to Dolo Ado while her husband stayed to look after their property.

Although life in the camps is challenging, Sadiya now has the opportunity to be exposed to new ideas on how to improve her and her family’s lives at International Medical Corps’ tea-talk sessions.

Says Sadiya: “I like attending the tea-talk sessions. I can be here with my friends. I feel safe here. I have a young daughter and thanks to what I have learned here, I won’t make her marry early. And I won’t subject her to female genital cutting.”

When asked if her husband would object to her new views, Sadiya replies, “I will educate him, and I think he will listen. If not, I will bring him to a tea-talk session.”

Sadiya is just one of thousands of refugees in East Africa whose lives we’ve changed with your help. On behalf of all of us at International Medical Corps, thank you!

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