Article

Helping Dinsoor district communities recover from severe drought thanks to cash transfers

Dinsoor district communities have been affected by both insecurity and recurrent droughts, having a negative impact on purchase power and access to basic needs.
The consecutive underperforming rains in the agro-pastoral area left many households with no source of livelihood and no means of sustaining their families’ basic needs. To alleviate the pressure in the area, ACTED has been organising unconditional cash transfers for 1,614 vulnerable members of the Dinsoor community between September and February 2020.

Helping remote communities affected by climate-related and security crises

The region has been affected for several years and people have lost all their livelihood assets, including livestock and crops. This situation has left many families unable to access basic needs – even the minimum, one meal a day. Previously, people in the district depended on livestock and farming for survival. However, because of failed rains and the presence of hostile militia, they are now vulnerable. Plus, given the security tension, the area is not easily accessible and unfortunately, many organisations can not provide aid for these communities.

Providing cash to hundreds of families

In order to help the community, and alleviate the debts of some families, ACTED provided cash to 1,614 people. This has since allowed the recipients to prepare meals in their homes and even begin small scale businesses such as selling goat milk to other community members. The cash given to people has alleviated the stress on lack of access to basic needs, and they now have the tools to progress and prosper sustainably.

Khadija milking her goats for consumption in Weelaboola village, in Dinsoor district

Creating better living-conditions

With the cash assistance received from ACTED, the communities have now improved their immediate access to food through provision. Cash responses provide people with financial means and flexibility to purchase the necessary good to meet urgent needs related to food.

Khadija Yiraw Manur, a 34 year-old mother of 6, lives in Weelaboola village which is located in Southeast of Dinsoor district. Khadija’s family were depending on animal and food reserves from subsistent farms, but because of the ongoing crisis, her family lost all their resources.

We were nearly going to shift from our traditional settlement location to any town where we hoped to get some humanitarian assistance. Fortunately, ACTED’s team arrived at our village, assessed who were the drought-affected people and I was one of the lucky people listed as beneficiary for the project. (…). However, to recover back to normal life will take time, but we benefited so much from the project and are now able to purchase food and save half of the money received from ACTED.

Khadija, beneficiary of ACTED’s project in Dinsoor District