Welcome back to another day in Somalia! We’ll spend these next three days with a charming Yemeni woman, Bidraya.
Bidraya is one of those neighborhood aunties who looks after everyone around her. Originally from Hudaydah, Yemen, she fled the civil war for Somalia four years ago. She’s alone in Somalia, with family members scattered across Djibouti and Yemen. But she shares an apartment with another Yemeni family and has a small community around her.
Bidraya is a talented cook and makes her own sweets, like the Yemenite Fried Dough called Zalabia. The dough rises in the hallway of her apartment building, and she then fries it in the small kitchen corner of their one-bedroom apartment. Despite all her talents and ambition, Bidraya doesn’t have all the equipment she needs. One such item is a stove and oven—she has a single burner that sits on her floor for a pot to rest on, but it limits what she can produce.
We wanted to help Bidraya do what she already does best, so we took her to buy a new stove and oven! Now, she’d be able to make and sell more of her sweets!
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Meet Sam!
Sam developed an interest in forced displacement, food insecurity, and identity while working on her master’s degree. She’s now using this knowledge to support Changemakers 365 across our country programs. When she’s not off on a work trip, she’s busy fermenting beverages, training for half marathons, or listening to podcasts at her home in Minneapolis.
