BY OSMAN HUSSEIN ALI (osmanhusseinke@gmail.com)
32-year-old Khatra Ibrahim Mohamed, is a breastfeeding mother and farmer from Jamame in the Southeastern Lower Jubba region of Somalia. She recounts the journey she has been forced to take as her home region teetered on the edge of famine as a result of devastating drought that has struck the region.
“We were farmers and used to live a comfortable life in our house because we planted maize, beans and other crops and we used to have cows that we got milk from before the drought hit and life took a devastating turn. We felt on the brink of famine that’s why we fled,” Khatra Ibrahim explains.
“Our lives depended on farming and we got income from it because we planted different crops and then we sold part of the crops and stored the rest,” She adds.
Like thousands of other families in Jamame, Khatra Ibrahim has watched her crops fail, their livestock perish and their community’s water supplies evaporate. She fled to Ceel Jale One in search of food, water and shelter for her infant baby and 3 other young children. She arrived at the camp 4 months ago.
“The family was okey and stayed in peace. Then drought hit,” she recounts. “We hoped for rain but it never came. It became three consecutive droughts. We then decided to leave everything behind and run for our dear lives,” Said Khatra Ibrahim.
The journey of fleeing from the raging drought was brutal to 36-year-old Khatra Ibrahim and her 4 children. They had no food for 2 days except very little muddy water they had and all her children fell sick along the way riding on donkey carts. By the time they arrived at Ceel Jale One camp, one of her youngest child was severely malnourished.
Khatra Ibrahim recounts the pain of watching over her child ailing as fighting to survive at a dispensary several kilometers away from the camp. Her other children remained in their makeshift tent, looked after by a neighbour.
“I was at a local dispensary with my ailing child for six days. He was given nutritious food and improved after that. Life has been hell for me and my children but I thank God I made through despite the hardships,” Said Khatra Ibrahim.
A spotcheck by Radio Kismayo has established that Khatra Ibrahim has been identified and registered to benefit through a humanitarian intervention courtesy of the Lutheran World Federation.
She was a beneficiary of a food assistance intervention program by the Lutheran World Federation that was implemented at the Ceel Jale One IDP camp where she benefited from a food distribution drive, something she said significantly helped her family’s food security.
The 36-year-old Khatra Ibrahim has high hopes about what their future holds now that they have made it safely to an IDP camp where they can receive humanitarian aid through government and aid agencies.
She is adamant of not returning back to her previous life citing hardships.
“Because of the severe drought, animals and crops have perished there is no place to go back to back at home. I want to get used to town life so that my children go to school and become engineers. I want my children to get an education and learn everything and to get out of the difficulty and teach me what they have learnt,” Said Khatra Ibrahim.
