As my life is saved, so I want to save them

Hunger. Sickness. They’re killers when you live in poverty.

And the danger deepens when you live in a country ripped apart by conflict, like Abdalle’s homeland Somalia – a conflict that killed her husband.

Abdalle is safe now – living in a refugee camp in Djibouti, where the ALWS family through our partner LWF supports the practical care needed most urgently.

It is still a daily struggle to feed her surviving children, yet Abdalle has now fostered two children who arrived at the camp alone, without parents.

Here, she tells her story, and shares what gives her strength to go on.

“It was a hard time during the war.

I walked from Somalia when Al Shabab came. They kill people, they take your property, they will kill you.

I was a housewife. My husband was a farmer. We had a big farm, but they take it. We grew maize, tomato, green pepper, mangoes, paw-paw and other vegetables. When we cut fruit, we sell it, and some we keep to eat. They were happy times.

Now, our family is lost in the war. So many are killed. We had to leave to save our lives. As we fled, we asked people in nomadic villages for help. They collected money so we could escape.

I remember we were running for ten days and nights. My heart was beating, and I felt numb about what was going on. As people were running, some were dying in the street, some were giving birth, some fainted.

When we reached the border, it was a relief. We were there for 16 days. I felt such happiness when we reached there, I became calm.

When I saw the camp, I feel I can start my living here. We received plastic sheets for shelter, mats and utensils. LWF gave us a water container and solar lamp. They also gave me a goat because I am a single mother. We sell the milk, and breed. Now we have three goats.

When I compare what I fled to and what I saw when I arrived, I see peace is very important.

I have seen many children who have no father or mother, and I have seen the condition they live in through the war and in hunger, and so I take them in.

These children I have taken in are from my clan. I have taken them not because of my culture, but because this is my decision. As my life is saved, so I want to save them.

My husband was lost during the war. The people in the village told me. People met bullets everywhere at that time. Under the tree, in the street.

I give my heart to God, and this is what keeps me strong.

I start work, cleaning at the school, to earn a daily living. We don’t have enough food, but what we receive, we eat together.

I am requesting people who support LWF to continue to grow their support because there is now not enough. My feeling to LWF is I am happy to them. I did not know I would receive this support so I am very grateful to them.”