In Ohio, Somali refugees worry for their family


August 5, 2011

Fartun Muhumed and her husband, Dahir Adan, with their children, in Columbus, Ohio. Family photo.

Fartun Muhumed and her husband, Dahir Adan, with their children, in Columbus, Ohio. Family photo.

In Columbus, Ohio, a portrait of peaceful parents with their impish, healthy children belies the family’s worry these days for their drought-afflicted relatives back home in the Horn of Africa.

Dahir Adan, 30, and his wife Fartun Muhumed, 26, are refugees from Somalia, resettled to the United States in February 2010 by Church World Service and Community Immigration and Refugee Services of Ohio.

Before that, they were in Kenya’s sprawling Dadaab refugee camps – Dahir for 17 years.  Designed for 90,000 people, the camps’ population has doubled and then more than doubled again in recent weeks to 420,000 and continues to grow by 1,500 people daily as people flood in from famine-stricken southern Somalia.

Fartun’s parents, Dahir’s aunt and nephews, and other members of their extended family still live in the Dadaab camps.

“In the house where my two parents live, there are three other families of my close relatives who recently arrived,” Fartun says.  “They have no shelter, no food, no clothes.  In Somalia they depended on livestock and all the livestock they had perished due to the severe drought.”

From Dahir’s salary, the couple covers their own rent, electricity, food and other bills and sends a little money every month to Fartun’s parents to help them survive.  But it’s not enough to also meet the needs of the new arrivals.

“My parents had been in camp with nothing other than the $50 I send to them every month and the little food they receive from UNHCR, which is not enough for them,” Fartun said.  “The three families that joined them are waiting for registration and they created a burden to the terrible situation of my family.”

Dahir’s aunt, who lives in Dadaab’s Hagadera camp with her four children, also has taken in three families fresh from Somalia.

“They had nothing and my aunt cannot support them,” Dahir said.  They also are waiting to be registered by UNHCR “and for time being they need food, water and clothing for survival.”

The UNHCR reports that some 116,000 Somali refugees have arrived in Dadaab so far this year. About 76,000 of them arrived in Dadaab in the last two months alone.  Since early June, more than 41,000 refugees have been registered by the Kenya government and issued with ration cards.

Africa’s drought affects more than 10 million people across Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia.  Church World Service is helping 97,000 households in this crisis, providing emergency food, water and relief in addition to long-term support.

HOW TO HELP:Donate online; by phone: (800) 297-1516; or by mail: Church World Service, 28606 Phillips Street, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN, 46515. On your check, write, “Attention: East Africa Drought, P.O. Box 968, Elkhart, IN 46515. (Appeal #642-L)