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    Helping communities rebuild

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    Our Work: 

    Somalia

    More and more former refugees are opting to return to Somalia after decades away. Through a range of activities, we're helping returning refugees and existing communities re-make Somalia.

    We provide services to help rebuild health, water, protection, shelter, and economic sys­tems. We support both camps with internally displaced people and communities around the country. We’re aiming high, working alongside the country’s private sector to create 50,000 jobs for youth in the coming years.

    Somalia

    Co-creating New Value
    for Communities

    Lifesaving services

    Our pri­mary and reproductive health services are fo­cused specifically on mothers and children. We help to prevent and treat the childhood illnesses that are too often the leading caus­es of high infant mortality rates. And, we provide the clean water, reliable sanitation systems, and hygiene education that keeps communities healthy.

    Having a roof over one’s head and a place to call home are often things we take for granted. Throughout Somalia, we work to provide shelter and vital household items for people who have none. We're especially excited about a new housing project that's unlike anything we've done before - building not shelters, but homes and neighborhoods in Kismayo, transforming the dusty desert into a place returned refugee families are proud to call home.

    Economic Recovery

    In Somalia, unemployment and lack of livelihood opportunities are widespread. Rebuilding these opportunities is the key to sustainable economic growth and will help pave the path toward recov­ery. We take a holistic approach to im­proving economic opportunities, with the ultimate goal of generating 50,000 jobs for Somalis. We are co-creating with local lead­ers, government agencies, and businesses, providing microfinance training and support and designing vocational training schools.

    Somalia once had a rich and successful fishing industry, the center of which was the South-Central city of Kismayo. But conflict in Somalia effectively shut down the industry – with many fishing families fleeing Kismayo and the trade not being passed down from one generation to the next. As Somalia rebuilds, we have been working to revive this vital industry and create new jobs for families returning – all through the supply chain.

    Protection

    For communities to develop and economic recovery to take hold, people need to feel safe and protected in their environments. For many in Somalia, years of displacement and insecurity have resulted in abusive, vi­olent, and dangerous situations, especially for women and girls. We provide confiden­tial, survivor-centered responses to gen­der-based violence, counseling victims of abuse and building relationships of mutual trust. We’re actively raising awareness of protection issues amongst internally dis­placed Somalis and helping communities take control of the solution.

    As youth are the veins of life, the future stabilization, peace and recovery of Somalia is in the hands of those borne from within its conflict.”

    – Adan Adar, Country Director
     

    Somalia: Recent Information

    On the Frontlines of COVID-19: Meet Hodan

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    How one teammate from Alight’s Somali Program is helping to stop the spread of the coronavirus  

    Hodan Abdi is a Protection Program Officer for our Somali Program. Originally from London, Hodan made a giant leap in 2019 to join the Alight team, leaving her work at a London-based homecare company to pursue her lifelong dream of becoming a humanitarian. But when COVID-19 hit in March, Hodan’s work, like everyone else’s at Alight and around the world, had to evolve. Now, she’s on the frontlines of the fight to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, helping to reach some of the most remote and vulnerable communities.  Read More

    Facing the Challenge: Our Somali Program Responds to COVID-19

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    A team committed to standing by the people they serve...

    Over the past few years, Alight's Somali Program have faced down challenge after challenge. Extreme drought and famine impact displaced people disproportionately. Refugees returning after decades away face new hurdles as they struggle to build livelihood and community back home. Political instability is an ever-present threat. Recently, locusts and flooding threaten to destabilize farmers and communities. But through it all, our teams have been there to help, doing the doable to protect the people we serve. Read More

    Not Fishing For Compliments…

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    But things are going swimmingly with our new fish kiosks in Somalia.

    Somalia once had a rich and successful fishing industry, the center of which was the South-Central city of Kismayo. (more…)

    Love Army for Somalia

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    Earlier this spring, a group of social media personalities, influencers, and athletes looked at what was happening in Somalia and wanted to do something to help. But right away they could see the scope of the crisis was far too big for their small group to make an impact. They needed to get a lot more people on their team. Read More

    Drought Relief in Somalia

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    Right now, there is a terrible drought happening in Somalia - in the Sool and Sanaag regions of Somaliland. Thousands of families have lost their livestock and any means to feed themselves. People are in desperate need for clean water and food relief to survive Read More

    In 2011, ARC responded to the famine in Somalia not through typical aid mecha­nisms but through a previously untapped resource: the vast global Somali Diaspora. The initiative, called I Am A Star, launched a worldwide collaborative effort to help Somalis living everywhere from Stock­holm, Sweden to Minneapolis, Minnesota connect to and help communities in their home country. ARC continues to provide this platform, empowering Somalis to work together to make change.

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