Areas of Intervention

The principle thematic of WOCCA interventions is to alleviate poverty status, respond to Gender in-equity and to address livelihood vulnerability concerns of widowed female headed households in agriculture crop production activities in Jowhar and Mahadday districts of Middle Shabelle region.

The social actors that to be benefited from the field intervention activities also include various community groups, (women groups and their household family members, rural pastoral community, disadvantaged boy and girl child, the poor of the poorest, marginalized groups in the target areas, local community/district and regional authority as well as local INGOs based in the field.

Below are other areas of Intervention:

• Food Security and sustainable livelihood sectors
• Income Generation in productive sectors (i.e. agriculture development, Water and irrigation, WATSAN, Micro-credit)
• Agriculture Development
• Education
• Protection (Women and Children)
• Emergency Preparedness and Response
• Capacity building and skill development
• Human and Child rights
• Women’s Rights
• Campaign against poverty and illiteracy
• Peace Promotion and Advocacy
• Awareness rising on FGM HIV/Aids

Real Life Stories

Water and Sanitation

Women in Somalia are increasingly becoming vulnerable in all aspects of life in the human contest. Life in Middle Shabelle is becoming of inferior quality by the day for women and children (Girls and Boys) and the situation is treating them too unsympathetically. The above is a picture of a lady of 15 years old who lives in one of the village in Middle Shabelle. She was attacked by a crocodile, but luckily she is alive although the ordeal left her wounded seriously. She had gone to the river to fetch water because that was the only source of water available in village. In the process of fetching the water from the river, the crocodile attacked her.
In as much as she was rescued, her life can never be the same again because she has been left with glaring scars on her leg which is a very sensitive part of her body. She now lives with the problem since she experiences difficulties that may not allow her to go to the river again due to the injuries inflicted. This is but just an example of the challenges that are faced by women in this region as they go about their daily activities as they try to fed for themselves and their children.

SGBV Impact

Somali women are suffering in silence and have become “the moving dead”. The lady in the picture is a pregnant mother who was raped and crushed badly by her attackers. The perpetrators of this heinous crime were not known and even if they were, they would still not be punished for their offence; most likely, they would go free and the blame would be laid on the woman!

The Lady lives with her mother in-law in South Central Somalia. This incident happened when she was going to look for firewood in the wild as that is the only source of energy and it is not available near the homesteads, one has to travel some distance away from the homestead to acquire it. When this happened, she was five months pregnant! Essentially, this aggravated her problems and caused her unimaginable pain. Given the trauma that she underwent after the ordeal, it is strange to note that by the time we caught up with her, her child had not been born and the pregnancy had lasted 20 months. She doesn’t know when she will be free from this unfair life and worse still, she doesn’t know if she is infected with a deadly virus or other related infections. What a solemn status of life this is!

Emergency Education

Educational in Emergency is not only right but in the situations of emergencies it is a fundamental necessity. It provides physical, social and cognitive protection which can be both life saving and life sustaining. Education sustains life by offering individuals particularly children and adolescents safe space for living as well as the ability to identify and provide support for affected people. The above is a picture of school children being taught under a tree; this is obviously not conducive for effective teaching and learning. The village lacks classrooms, either permanent or temporary, to accommodate the young children who are definitely very eager to learn.  During the rainy season studies can not be conducted and children are forced to remain at home. What is worse, a lot of parents have not embraced the idea of education, so there are a lot of children who have reached school going age but have not yet been enrolled into any kind of school. The Somali communities of the three districts (Jowhar, Ballad and Mahaday) have had adverse effects of ethnic strife and an absolute distraction of all amenities through the current and previous insurgency; these have deprived the majority of the middle shabelle children of their right to Education.