Sir, – David Adams questioned Oxfam’s method of working in Somalia (Opinion, August 25th). Oxfam works in Somalia, and across the world, primarily by providing financial, logistical and technical support to our local partners to aid the people most in need.
Partners like Mohamed Dahir, a local Somali aid worker, help Oxfam to deliver aid to hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) throughout Mogadishu and Lower Shabelle. With international support Dahir and his staff are on the ground delivering clean water and sanitation to more than 300,000 IDPs; frequently delivering lifesaving aid.
It is Oxfam’s local partners such as these that are on the front lines of the crisis, trying to stave off a disaster that’s been years in the making. These are Somalis helping Somalis and they have been doing it for years. That the work is necessary, and has been so for years, is symptomatic of the hugely complex problems facing the region and organisations trying to assist.
For Oxfam, working in Somalia means helping Somalis to help themselves.
Because Oxfam has working relationships with partners in the Horn of Africa that go back decades, it is able to function even in areas with tremendous challenges, such as the southern part of Somalia.
Oxfam is working with partners to deliver a therapeutic feeding programme for malnourished children. So far the programme has admitted more than 136,000 malnourished children at care sites in Mogadishu.
This includes 56,000 children this year. As the famine continues and more displaced families flee to Mogadishu, more than 3,000 malnourished children continue to be admitted into this programme every week.
Throughout Somalia, Oxfam is reaching over 800,000 people who benefit from programmes, including direct cash relief for displaced families, water and sanitation services and cash for work projects among others. – Yours, etc,