04.02.10
The skills training project of the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) has enabled 18year old Asha Muse Isaq to provide for her family – and hope for a better future despite war and displacement.
Asha Muse Isaq fled Mogadishu with her family eight years ago following the protracted war in Somalia. She still remembers the difficulties her family passed during the flight through Mogadishu.
“Our home was completely destroyed after a mortar landed on it. My parents decided to flee without carrying anything with them. The journey from Mogadishu to Belet Weyne and then to Gaalkacyo in Puntland was really a harrowing ordeal. My parents still talk about the difficulties they experienced at the hands of cruel armed militias manning checkpoints. There were many militia checkpoints which needed money from them,” Asha says.
Asha is now 18 years old and lives in Buulo Elay neighborhood in south of the port town of Bossaso, Puntland among the many IDPs from South and Central Somalia. She is the first born in a family of five girls and four boys, only three of her siblings go to school.
Asha’s father goes to downtown Bossaso every morning in search of casual work. But it is not easy to find and with nine children to feed, the family is now looking at Asha to provide. She has become the sole breadwinner for the family after attending a DRC skills training project. Asha was among the first group which benefited from the project in Buulo Elay IDP camp. The project was aimed at developing tailoring skills of the IDP communities in the camps to assist themselves earn an independent living.
“Life was very difficult for our family before I joined this skills training programme. I was trained in tailoring and after successfully completing the training I was given a sewing machine to improve my living condition and that of my entire family,” Asha appreciates.
Despite the burden of being the sole breadwinner, Asha is a very enthusiastic and hardworking girl. Asha wakes up at 5:00 am everyday to prepare breakfast, when available, for her siblings, and send her three brothers to school before she starts her tailoring work right in front of their house.
“Every morning I sit here in front of our house and do some tailoring work for my clients. People here have no money, but I am happy I get something at the end of the day to buy dinner for the family. I am now optimistic about the future and looking forward to rebuilding the life of my family,” she concludes.
Asha has a big plan for her future. The little money she earns from her tailoring work will be divided between family care and savings. In six months time – Asha says - she will open a kiosk to sell food stuff to supplement the family upkeep and send more of her siblings to better schools in the region.
Background:
Somalia has endured close to 20 years of conflict and civil unrest. As security deteriorates in South and Central regions of Somalia, huge displacement also continues to frequently occur. Migration is one of the essential tools for survival and coping mechanism for individual to move away from direct threat to seek better opportunities and better living condition and safety. Moreover, conflict deprives people the opportunity to get basic services such as; shelter, water, electricity, education, primary health care and employment for sustainable income. Despite the hardship, many Internally Displaced People (IDPs) in Somalia are trying to cope and manage to survive through the assistance from Danish Refugee Council protection; reintegration and resettlement program for IDP’s funded by FAO-HSTF that aims to support some 250 most vulnerable members of the IDP and returnee communities in Puntland.