By Suleiman Sabdow
MOGADISHU– A group of Somali youth popular in social media especially Tiktok have come out to help drought and famine stricken people in Somalia.
The group comprising of 8 people have volunteered to extend a helping hand to the vulnerable families hit by drought by raising money through an online campaign dubbed “CaawiWalalka”.
Led by Bilal Bulshawi, who is known by Somalis as “President of Tiktok”, the young team of volunteers say they have so far reached out to close to 300 households in the periphery of Dowlow district, Gedo region.
Speaking to journalists from the devastated town, Bilal who is among the pioneers and is spearheading the donation program said pthey have come forward to give assistance to the vulnerable people in the society after months of outcry from the public about the dire situation on the ground.
“We as Somali have mobilised resources through online fundraising for the drought stricken people and we were able to collect a good amount of money from our followers and friends in Social media to mitigate the devastating drought in the country,” said Bilal.
The team have been camping in the worst hit drought region of Gedo for the last two weeks and have supplied food items and did water trucking to the displaced people in the Somali government controlled areas of the region.
The group said the outreach program will continue and will solicit funds from well-wishers and via online campaigns to mobilize more resources to cushion the people from the debilitating drought that has hit the country.
They also lamented about the dire humanitarian situation on the ground which they said if left unattended to will oscillate to a full blown humanitarian crisis.
“The Situation on ground is very pathetic and as you can see people do not have even plates and more worse a place to shelter from the scorching sun.” said Loosey a young volunteer on the ground.
Somalia has declared a state of humanitarian emergency as drought ravages 80 percent of the country, leaving more than two million people short of food and water.
Six people had died in late November this year due to the ongoing devastating drought in Somalia’s South Western Gedo region.
Somali Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble had last month declared drought a national disaster and appealed for an urgent response.
“I am calling upon all Somalis, including the business community, religious leaders, members of the diaspora community and international partners, to take part in aiding those affected by the famine.” said PM Roble.
Our country is in a state of humanitarian emergency. I call upon all Somalis,business people, religious leaders, the diaspora & the international community to make concerted efforts to significantly contribute to mitigate the suffering of those affected by the drought.#Somalia pic.twitter.com/yeVyMoJeQT
— Mohamed Hussein Roble (@MohamedHRoble) November 23, 2021
The Prime Minister added that the situation situation is very dire and there is a need for an immediate response to scale up efforts to combatting with the ravaging drought that continues to take a heavy toll on the Somali people.
According to the UN, Somalia is facing a rapidly worsening drought that has left more than two million people facing severe food and water shortages and has precipitated displacement of people.
