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Almost 128,000 vulnerable people seriously impacted by the severe drought in southern Somalia are being supported by Trócaire through an EU-funded health, nutrition, and protection programme.
Halwo, an ICCM Community Health Worker screening Abdihakim of malnutrition at his home in Kahare IDP camp, Dollow.
Trocaire is targeting over 82,403 women and girls, and 45,413 men and boys in Dollow, Luuq and Belet Hawa districts of Gedo in southern Somalia, using a network of specially trained community health workers.
Gedo is hugely impacted by the longest drought in 40 years, with the region experiencing a massive movement of people to internally displaced camps because their livestock have died and crops failed.
With an EU Humanitarian Aid grant of €1.5 million Trocaire is targeting vulnerable and hard to reach communities. To date 170 Community Health Workers (CHWs) have been trained, enabling services to be delivered closer to the most vulnerable thereby reducing deaths and malnutrition rates and protecting the most marginalised.
As well as community health workers Community Health Committees (CHCs) and District Health Boards (DHBs) are playing an important role in helping reach those in need by eliminating access barriers and allowing service delivery throughout the community. The DHBs act as Trócaire’s link to the communities and participate in project design.
The interventions are complementing existing health, nutrition and protection services by focusing on critical gaps and reaching more villages and internally displaced camp settlements.
Fadhuma and her son at the Dollow Referral Stabilization centre
To date the project has established 12 community health units in the three districts (Luuq 6; Dollow 5 and Belet Hawa 1). As well as training 170 Community Health Workers 18I Community Case Management (CCM) Supervisors have been trained on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR), while 87 Community Health Committees (CHCs) have been trained on leadership, management, conflict resolution, advocacy and resource mobilization.
To date the project has seen:
This year the European Union allocated at least €61 million for humanitarian response in Somalia supporting food assistance, basic health and nutrition services, clean water, protection, shelter, and education in emergencies.
Trócaire has been providing vital health and nutrition support in the Gedo region for 30 years and has been endorsed as the main health service provider in the region by both the Ministry of Health (MOH) and local authorities.
Trócaire works with community-based structures such as Village Health Committees and District Health Boards (DHBs) to manage and deliver basic services, while coordinating with MoH of the State and Federal Governments, to establish structures that facilitate oversight of service delivery.
