The Cornish charity ShelterBox is warning that around a million people left displaced in Somalia urgently need shelter.
The international disaster relief charity has launched a fundraising appeal to raise £150,000 to build robust shelters that can better withstand weather extremes.
The charity says it’s using a different type of shelter in Somalia as it is expected people will remain displaced for longer without proper support to build homes.
ShelterBox says that with the changing climate and growing displacement, it’s having to change the way it works by developing different types of shelters.
Speaking from Mogadishu, ShelterBox’s programme manager Mel Hughes said: “We are launching a campaign for £150,000 that will go to communities like the ones we are seeing in Somalia where floods are devastating communities.
“In Somalia we know that the rainy season is coming again and people have barely had a chance to recover from the last season. Communities tell us that without a shelter they have little hope.”
Among those supported so far by ShelterBox is 30-year-old mother Nurta. She and her family were forced to leave their relatively comfortable life and abandon the land they owned and farmed after prolonged periods of drought left them without water.
The family are now living in one of the shelters ShelterBox has helped provide on the outskirts of Baidoa.
She said: “I find myself living away from my homeland for the past two years. Our journey to this point was marked by a series of hardships primarily driven by the recurring and devastating droughts that plagued our region.”Shelterbox says that Somalia has not brought on the problems of climate change, but it is suffering the consequences and urgently needs help.
Mel said: “The conditions of flood, drought and conflict are being made worse by climate change. Somalia only contributes 0.03 per cent of the world’s carbon and yet you can see the devastating impact it’s having.
“This is a really clear example that, climate change is making things so much worse for people in Somalia.”
Source: ITV
