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Walking the path of disability: BRCiS supports Derow to stand his feet again

Países
Somalia
Fuentes
BRCiS
Fecha de publicación

Moalim Derow is a 45 years old physically disabled father who lives with his wife and his six children (2 girls and 4 boys) aged between 16-1 year. Derow used to be a Quran teacher from 1996 up to 2012, and later turned into business sector. In 2014 he opened a small kiosk in Towfiq village in Gedo region with small amount of USD 200. He has been selling different types of non-food and food items. Derow’s business has been gradually developing and acquired clients as he was well known within his village. Derow’s small kiosk turned into a shop and he moved to Unaye Market that is between Towfiq and Berdale villages. Unfortunately, in December 2018, Derow’s shop was burnt to ashes by an unexpected fire in the middle of the night as a result of faulty electrical wiring.

Save the Children is implementing the second phase of Building Resilience in Somalia (BRCiS II) project in Towfiq urban village and supports the most vulnerable persons in the village by providing monthly safety nets and income generating activities in line with their Community Action Plan (CAP). Derow was one of 50 beneficiaries who benefited from the income generation activities and was provided with a top-up grant of USD 500 under BRCiS II project in October 2019 which was intended to improve his business since he has been running it without external assistance. Besides that, Save the Children has also provided short term business management training for the IGA beneficiaries for them to grasp basic knowledge on entrepreneurship to smoothly run their respective businesses.

“Now I am happy with the change. I can pay the school fees for my four children. I am thankful to BRCiS programme on its timely support to the most vulnerable people like me and I hope this will also encourage other people with different disabilities to conduct their own businesses”. Says Derow.

Save the Children, as part of Building Resilience in Somalia (BRCIS) consortia, is implementing BRCiS II project which is an integrated (Wash, Health, Nutrition and Food security and livelihood) resilience community driven project, funded by UK government in Towfiq and Ceelcadow villages in Baidoa, in partnership with GREDO as a local partner. One of the activities prioritized by the community under the Community Action Plan (CAP) was to provide an income generation activity in Towfiq village to 50 households with each given an amount of USD 500 as a one-off which was intended to scale up their businesses. Save the Children and GREDO are also implementing other activities under WASH, health and nutrition are implementing in Ceelcadow and Towfiq target villages including rehabilitation of shallow wells, building water kiosks, drilling boreholes and latrines to be used by the most vulnerable communities in the villages.

Published by
Abdikarim Ali, NRC BRCiS Communication and advocacy coordinator