Speech to Somaliland Drought fundraising event in Sheffield.

Speech to Somaliland drought fund raising event.

When I visited Somaliland two years ago I found a thriving, youthful, energetic, outward looking Country, one with a Government keen to make friends and connections around the world.

Somaliland is a country of farmers, they raise millions of goats and sheep every year that are exported to Saudi Arabia and other countries, and they are expert breeders of Camels and have been working to expand the production of the wonder food camel’s milk.

Now as a result of El Ninio there have been no rains for three years.

One and a half million people in Somaliland are facing drought

Over half the livestock are dead up to 10 million animals left in the fields to die.

Meningitis is becoming rife amongst children.

Thousands of people are suffering from cholera.

In Hargissa the capital City there are estimated to by 85 thousand refugees, most of whom are Women with families, and once again who are bearing the brunt of the drought and its consequences. Many of the Women living in the camp are at risk from rape, as the ground is too hard to dig latrines the Women will only go to the toilet at night in the dark as they have to go in the open. This leaves them vulnerable to gangs of Men roaming the camps at night who attack and rape them.

These Women scape a living collecting and selling stone for building, but this is physically hard work and leaves the Women who are undernourished anyway exhausted and unable to look after themselves.

Another problem they have to put up with is the owners of the land in the camp who demand rent for the land, failure to pay means having your shelter burned down, so far no International Aid Agencies have supplied any help.

Because of the lack of water and food the Women are suffering miscarriages and so their Husbands abandon them as they believe it’s the Woman’s fault she lost her child.

These Women used run their own farms and run their own businesses selling the milk and meat, now through no fault of theirs they have ended up as refugees in their own country reduced to looking to hand-outs in order to feed their families.

These people are not people who are remote from us here in Sheffield, they are not some starving Africans who while we might have sympathy for them are remote from us. 

People dying in Somaliland are the relatives of our friends and neighbours here in Sheffield, it’s the families of people we know that are suffering because of this drought.

What can we do?

Give money

£50 will feed a family for a month

£100 with provide essential medical and hygiene packs

£200 will provide families with a water supply.