UNDP
Thursday, August 12, 2010
"I earned three dollars per day for 35 days, I used 1 dollar for food and saved the other 2 dollars for the 35 days of the rehabilitation works", said Sagal.
As the war inside Mogadishu intensified, Sagal and her husband Ahmed, a Ogaden war veteran, brought their five children to the disaffected hospital, in order to get shelter. Mohamed is disabled and can not work; Sagal struggled to raise her family. The odd jobs she did in the neighborhood only brought ion on average a US a day. That covered for one or two meals a day but was not enough to send the children to school.
The Martini Hospital was once a renowned place to get adequate medical treatment in the centre of Mogadishu, until 1977 when the military regime transformed the hospital into a recreational for veterans from the Ogaden war and residents had to seek medical treatment from hospitals in the outskirts of town. When the Barre regime collapsed in 1991, leaving the war veterans without support, they relocated with their families into the Martini Hospital. At the same time, the civil war made it difficult and risky for residents to access hospitals outside the center, especially at night.
With this project, UNDP Somalia and its local partner involved the local communities, including one member from the family of each war veteran – to rehabilitate 12 rooms, two corridors and latrines at the hospital, improve the overall sanitation of the hospital and its surroundings, and open an access road and a drainage system. In effect, this project provided an income to over 600 people, and, in the long run, will upgrade the health facilities of the Hamar Weyne district in Mogadishu.
With the money that she saved under the project, Sagal established a small kiosk outside the hospital, where she serves tea and snacks. "Thanks god today I can feed my family and be able to pay the school fees" quoted Sagal happily.
She is thinking of expanding her small business with the savings she is making.
This initiative is part of UNDP Somalia's Employment for Early Recovery project. It was running from April to June 2010. It is funded by the Government of Japan.
Source: UNDP