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Programme Summary Report
 

AUSTRALIAN DONATION 2005

 

Summary

 

A 40’ container of humanitarian goods was sent from Brisbane on 30 January (via Singapore and Dubai) to Mogadishu, Somalia.

 

The manifest included:

 

• 676 boxes of second-hand books (@ 22 kilo average per box = 14.872 tonnes)
• 8 boxes of medical supplies
• 28 bales containing primarily clothing and other items listed below (@ 100 kilos per bale = 2.8 tons)
• 63 sets of crutches
• 2 wheelchairs
• 1 solar panel and frame (solar for school)
• 3 solar floodlights
• 1 solar switch
• 1 solar deep cycle battery
• 1 PC and peripherals
• 30 bolts of clothe for tailoring training

The container arrived at El Maan port, north of Mogadishu, on 23 April. Unloading continued from 23-25 April. The completion of the delivery of the goods was made to SAACID – Somalia’s administrative compound on 25 April 2005.

 

The books have now all been registered, but only 25% have been thus far distributed to schools. Final distribution should occur by October 2005.

 

The solar panel and associated equipment will go to one of the schools as an experiment in providing security lighting to the complex; and, to provide practical environmental education for school students.

 

The bolts of cloth went to SAACID’s tailoring programme.

 

Light medical went to SAACID’s health clinics. While half of the crutches and the two wheelchairs went to a disabled association in Mogadishu City (with clothing), the remaining crutches of a smaller size are being held for future distribution to children.

 

All clothing was distributed to the following communities as described below:

 

I.                    Marino Camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP) in Mogadishu City – 265 families

II.                 Women-headed households in Adale District, which suffered from the effects of tsunami disaster – 280 families

III.               Geed Timir IDP Camp in Mogadishu City – 175 families

IV.              Members of Somali Disabled Association in Mogadishu City, who also received crutches and the two wheelchairs – 30 members

 

I. Marino Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) Camp

 

 

The first community to benefit from Australia’s generosity was a camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) called ‘Marino'. Marino is located approximately 1.5 kilometres from SAACID’s administrative centre in Mogadishu. The area was the headquarters of the old Somali navy before the civil war. The compound is fairly large, with the main building that has been looted and destroyed by years of war, and lots of open space. Displaced families have created makeshift homes for themselves within the confines of the Marino compound. Most of the families have lost fathers and husbands in the conflict. They were forced out of their original homes, due to armed freelance militia who have attacked their families and looted their property.

 

                                       

                      Marino IDP camp                                                                                                        No education, no healthcare, no water - nothing

 

On 27 April, SAACID staff members (Shukri and Zarah) visited Marino. They informed the community of the donation from Australia and asked them to create a committee of women to assist in the distribution. Many of the women-headed households residing at Marino camp are participants in other SAACID programmes - such SAACID’s women’s micro-credit and Literacy and Numeracy Training (LNT). The community formed a committee of women leaders known and trusted by all.

                                 

                 Clothing bales being unloaded into                                                                                     Clothing being unpacked, sorted and bundled
                 SAACID’s compound in Mogadishu

 

Journal notes on the pilot distribution process used for Marino, which was followed in the other three distributions:

 

The first committee responsibility was to bring a list of all the families living in Marino, with one representative chosen from each family. Each family was estimated to have an average of 5 members. Many families were not present during the creation of the list, forcing the committee to include their names by memory. The final list included 265 families.

 

Anticipating future distributions to other communities, 7 bales of clothing were allocated for Marino. Early morning on April 28^th the SAACID team began preparing individual bundles of 6 items for each family. Using a large sweater as one item, it was filled with 5 additional items to make one individual bundle. Two items of smaller children’s clothes made one item. By midday only 170 of the 265 individual bundles had been created. The team was forced to postpone the distribution until Saturday afternoon, in order to finish the 265 bundles.

 

Midday 30 April (as 29 April was a holiday) everything was ready for the Marino distribution. By 3 pm nearly all of the family representatives were gathered outside of the SAACID compound gates. The six-member women’s committee was brought inside to where the items were awaiting distribution. The distribution process went as follows:

 

1.        Using a copy of the list a SAACID staff person called the names outside;

2.        Those called entered the SAACID compound through one gate;

3.        Each family representative was guided to the committee, identified, had their name marked on another copy of the list; and lastly

4.        Each family representative was given their individual bundle, and exited the compound through another gate.

 

Among the family representatives were elderly women and men, persons with physical disabilities (such as blindness or the loss of a limb), young pregnant women, and adolescents sent by guardians too ill to come.

                                      

          Marino women’s committee oversees proceedings                                                                  Waiting for distribution

 

The distribution proceeded smoothly, with few problems encountered. SAACID staff experienced a little difficulty identifying the correct people on the list outside the gate. This was due to spectators falsely claiming to have their names on the list. Fortunately the committee was able to clarify any confusion over those entitled to the distribution. Another matter of confusion occurred over the families the committee had included by memory. Some of the names were mistaken (an easy thing to do with the Somali name structure), and in addition, the families did not necessarily send the representatives the committee had expected. This caused a short delay in the distribution while the committee corrected the names and determined which families those individuals represented.

 

The entire process took no longer than 3 hours. All but 23 families, who were unable to come on the day of distribution, received their items. The remaining families collected their items over the following days. Many photos were taken of the distribution activities.

 

At the close of day, the committee was asked about their observations. They said that overall everything went very smoothly. All the recipients were familiar to the committee. They clarified the small problem with the names previously mentioned, saying that they had no choice but to include those absent by memory to avoid conflict with those families. They were asked how the distribution could have been done better. Before responding they thanked SAACID and Australia for their work and generosity. Then they mentioned that because the rainy season had come, distributing plastic for covering would have been beneficial, but were grateful for any assistance provided.

 

As for advice for future distribution, this process is an efficient model to use. In particular, the strengths were:

 

·   Guiding recipients through one gate and out another (a clean rotation system);

·   Using a list to identify individuals; and

·   Having a committee from the recipient community responsible for the process.

 

Ultimately, because of the strong role of the committee, the recipient community owned most of the process, and resolved any conflicts themselves.

                          
                  Distributing clothing to Marino IDP’s                                                                                 Full partnership by the IDP camp community
                                                                                                                                                                         was a key to the success of the distribution

 

II.    Tsunami Relief Effort in Adale District, Middle Shabelle Region, Somalia

 

 

The next recipients of the clothing donation were women-headed households in Adale - a coastal fishing town located on the coast 155 kilometres north of Mogadishu. The town was affected by the tsunami disaster and the clothing distribution took place alongside other relief efforts in the area that were being implemented by SAACID. Those efforts mainly targeted fishing families who lost their livelihoods in the disaster (primarily their boats and fishing equipment). SAACID decided to distribute clothing to other vulnerable families in the community who did not partake in the fishing related relief.

 

Due to the success of the Marino distribution process, the same model was used again for all the distributions. In Adale however, a women’s group had already been formed in 2004 during a SAACID implemented, UN-HABITAT and EC funded, Good Governance and Local Leadership Training Program. SAACID instructed the women’s group to identify and create a list of the most vulnerable families headed by women in the 4 sectors of Adale Town. Families came to the SAACID Adale compound to collect their items on 10 May 2005.

                           
              Waiting their turn to collect the donation                                                                                                      Checking the list

 

 III. Geed Timir IDP Camp

 

 

Back in Mogadishu SAACID staff began preparing for the third clothing distribution - this time to another IDP camp in the city called ‘Geed Timir’ (there are an estimated 250,000 IDP’s living in Mogadishu City alone). Geed Timir is located approximately 4 kilometres from SAACID Mogadishu administrative compound. This IDP camp used to be the old Djiboutian Embassy. As described with Marino camp, displaced families who have chosen to remain in Somalia, or are without means to flee as refugees to other countries, are forced by circumstance to inhabit destroyed buildings and embassies to find shelter (usually old government buildings, as the previous government was a socialist military dictatorship - they controlled everything). Geed Timir, like most camps, is made up of mostly women-headed households who have lost families members and been forced from their original homes.

 

As with Marino, many of Geed Timir’s residents are participants in other SAACID programmes. A committee of women from the community was formed to facilitate the distribution. Geed Timir is made up of fewer families and the process took less time, but went just as smoothly. Those who were unable to collect their items on 21 May came over the preceding days.

                     

                                       Receiving clothing                                                                                                    Most recipients from this camp were from

                                                                                                                                                                             women-headed households

  IV. Somali Disabled Association

 

 

The last clothing distribution went to members of an association for the disabled in Mogadishu. This Somali Disabled Association was founded in 1994 during the United Nations Intervention of Somalia (1992-5), as an organized way of receiving relief into local communities. Members do not reside together, but have independent homes. Relatives care for some, while others are able to take care of themselves and reside alone.

 

In this case, no committee was needed to facilitate the distribution. The director of SAACID’s health programmes approached the chairman of the association. All members were instructed to come to the SAACID Mogadishu compound on 25 May to collect their crutches and clothing. Recipients were primarily men, though there were a few women, with disabilities caused by polio and other such diseases, as well as war related injuries.

 

The two wheelchairs were given to the association. Half of the crutches, 30 out of 63, were distributed to the association members who are all adults. The remaining crutches are being held by SAACID health clinics to be distributed to children in need.

                       

                                

                                                                                                               Disabled receiving crutches

 The information above was collected and reported by Christy Sprinkle, a SAACID volunteer working through Mennonite Central Committee