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Emergency Trust Fund for Africa
  • News article
  • 7 May 2018
  • 1 min read

Cash-for-work projects: bringing hope and clean streets in Mogadishu

Anab Mohamed Said, a returnee to Somalia, speaks about the cash-for-work projects - @IOM/Christian Jepsen
Anab Mohamed Said, a returnee to Somalia, speaks about the cash-for-work projects - @IOM/Christian Jepsen

“We left Yemen because of the conflict and to get our children out from the bullets,” says Anab Mohamed Said, a returnee to Somalia. “No one can live where there is no peace so we return to Somalia to find peace.”

Cash-for-work projects, financed by the European Union and implemented by IOM, brings hope and clean streets in Mogadishu while contributing to reintegrate returnees. The project Facilitating Sustainable Return Through Laying Foundations for Somalia in the Horn of Africa provides monthly salaries to returnees, internally displaced and host communities. “I use my salary to buy food for my family and the things they need from day to day. And with the salary, we can also have our clothes washed. I am very happy with this,” continues Anab.

The initiative also aims to promote peaceful coexistence through the public work projects. “The displaced people and we in the host community are well integrated,” agrees Rahmo Olow, a host community member. “Now we cooperate as brotherly people who share the same neighbourhood. Together we are the vulnerable people benefiting from this project.

Local community committees assist IOM with planning the cash-for-work projects. “The sanitation has improved a lot compared to before [the project]," confirms Nema Mohamed Hassan, a community committee member. "The drainage system has been improved, resulting in an overall health improvement. Now there are fewer cases of acute diarrhoea compared to the situation before."

With the support from the European Union, the IOM cash-for-work projects in Somalia will reach 1,600 vulnerable families in 2018.

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Details

Publication date
7 May 2018
Region and Country
  • Somalia
Thematic
  • Greater economic and employment opportunities
Partner
  • International Organization for Migration

Programmes in the region