Summary

In 2019, Zahra*, 30, fled her village after intercommunal fighting broke out in their locality. Her husband was killed amid the violence. She was able to escape with her five children as well as two other adopted children but has since been living at a temporary site for displaced families - no livelihoods, living inside a shelter intended for the short- term, without toilets, and only relying on meagre food assistance.

She lives with another 80,000 people, with the majority being women and children, who with her struggle to make ends meet while living in intended temporary homes that Save the Children provided in 2019.

Two years on, the only thing that has changed is the worsening living conditions, which have been excerbated due to COVID-19 and prolonged drought.

Zahra*’s story in her own words (quotes)

“My name is Zahra*, I have five children of my own and two adopted children. I lost my husband when the fighting broke out in my hometown in Oromia Region.

Three years ago, I ran away when the fighting started and carried my five children. As I escaped for our lives, I managed to take with me two more children, and eventually adopted them.

We walked for more than five days through the forest, to reach the main highway. After enduring hardship and suffering, we found a truck loaded with goods, and we were able to hide under these goods and arrived here at the camp. We left our home empty-handed, only with the clothes on our backs.

Before we came to this place, we used to live in Oromia region. We lost all our belongings due to the conflict. Our livestock was looted, our farm was destroyed and our house was burnt down because of the conflict.

Our shelter is too small and poorly furnished for our family of eight. Because of the shortage of space, we sometimes sleep out in the open. We also suffer from a shortage of food and cooking utensils, and this is mainly difficult for our children to live with.

The other biggest challenge here is the lack of latrines in the nearby camp. We need to walk out to faraway places, in the middle of the bush, to relieve ourselves. This is not something girls can do without fear of abuse and feeling embarrassment. The poor hygiene and confined living condition in the camp are also resulting in many children getting sick, and we do not have enough money to take them to the clinic.

Our needs are too many to tell. This time, our priority and urgent need is a home we can live in comfortably, medical service, enough food, clean drinking water and kitchen utensils such as cooking pots, plates, and buckets. The last time we received food from the World Food Programme was three months ago and the food handouts are not sufficient to cover the whole month. We wish we could be provided with more food and kitchen utensils. Ever since we came to this place, we are entirely dependent on the small food assistance that the government and other agencies provide us.

Due to the hot weather here and the small size of our shelter, suffocation is a norm, and it is difficult to stay inside [the shelter] for a long time. Because of this, we are worried that our children become ill. We are very grateful to Save the Children for providing us with a water storage container, plastic sheet, mattress, and body and laundry soaps that helped us build our house and wash our bodies and clothes.

On behalf of my community, I would like to take this opportunity to ask the government and supporters to continue to help us until the situation improves. We also wish we could be provided with start-up financial assistance for us to be able to earn a regular income and improve our daily situation to help us be more self-sufficient.

I wish for my children to go far with their education and find government work so they can support me and lead a successful life.”

What Save the Children doing to help Zahra* and others like her?

Save the Children, through UNOCHA's Ethiopian Humanitarian Fund, distributed household items including sleeping mats, blankets, WASH kits including laundry and body soaps and other materials to more than 2,500 people across three camps where displaced families have settled in the Babille district of Somali Region, Ethiopia.

The blankets keep the children from the cold nights, and the laundry and body soap maintain good hygiene. In addition, the project included school feeding activities and distributed school kits to more than 4,000 students across eight target schools. Save the Children also established child-friendly spaces both in the camps with displaced families and host communities where children regain a sense of normalcy through structured learning and play.

* Name changed to protect identity