Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, is a city of over four million people. It lies in a state of pockmarked, decrepit disrepair.
International aid agencies struggle to find efficient ways to help a population living in a perpetual state of insecurity and violence. Food distribution is interrupted by gun battles, by militias stealing from the poor and weak, and donations are routinely looted upon arrival at the airport. It is difficult for foreigners to move around to provide aid without hiring their own militias to avoid being kidnapped.
Drought has plagued the Horn of Africa, and the U.N. estimates that while thousands have already died from hunger, three quarters of a million more might still perish from starvation in Somalia if sufficient aid doesn’t reach them in time.
Gift of The Givers, a South African Aid Organization, sent a team of doctors and specialists , as well as food parcels, to the war torn area. The Organization set up makeshift hospitals to treat the thousands of Somalians in dire need of assistance.
