‘It was small, but it was mine’: A Somali woman's journey from surviving to thriving

After losing everything to Somalia’s worst drought in four decades, 33-year-old Xaawo was thrust into destitution with her eight children.

“I lived in debt and had no support from anyone, including my former husband. We had to skip some meals,” she says.

Thanks to her resilience, though, she was down but not out.

Determined to stay self-reliant, she took on any work she could find – washing clothes, cleaning homes, cooking and even hauling heavy loads in the market at a displacement site in Somalia’s Deynille district.

“I had no choice but to provide for my children,” she says.

But that changed in early 2023, when the OCHA-managed Somalia Humanitarian Fund (SHF) allocated US$25 million to support communities hardest hit by the drought, made possible by generous donations from the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Portugal, Turkey and Estonia".

With this funding, local non-governmental organization Northern Frontier Youth League (NoFYL) launched a cash-for-work programme in Deynille to improve living conditions in displacement sites and give people a source of income.

With the money she earned from this initiative, Xaawo opened her own grocery store, which has helped her rebuild her life.

“I still remember the feeling of unlocking my shop for the first time,” she said, adding, “It was small but it was mine. That feeling gave me hope.”

Today, she’s not only sustaining her family but creating jobs for other women in her community.

Read her full story here: “It was small but it was mine.” How a cash-for-work initiative helped Xaawo build a business in Somalia | OCHA

Posted November 2025

More information on the Somalia Humanitarian Fund:
https://www.unocha.org/somalia-humanitarian-fund

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