Hello, hello! Welcome to Garowe, where we will be spending the next few days. Garowe is both the capital of Somalia’s Nugaal region and administrative capital of the state of Puntland in Northeastern Somalia.
Garowe is a relatively small city surrounded by small farms. We thought this would be the perfect opportunity to work with some farmers who live not too far from our offices.
We started our stay in Garowe by meeting with two men from the local farming union association, Hassan and Abdi. Hassan told us a bit more about the background of the organization and farming in the region. “As soon as the fighting started in the South in 1991, people started coming back to Puntland, a region that many of us consider to be the breadbasket of Somalia. We saw that there were farmers sporadically, but no way that they were really brought together, so we decided to start the union in 1996. Since then, we’ve been able to connect farmers to trainings and other resources.”
Hassan and Abdi know their community of farmers well, so they know what their major needs are. One of the things that came up again and again in our conversations are struggles related to water. So, we were able to buy water pumps and piping that would help a handful of farmers around Garowe who could most use them!
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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.
