Adam Ali Mohamed travelled to Mogadishu alone. His family had already left for Somalia’s capital without him - it was too dangerous for them to travel together as a group. But although he and his family may have left their village separately, they all made the journey to Mogadishu for the same reason – to find food.

Adam was desperate to find transport to get him to the Siliga camp in Mogadishu – a camp set up to support people affected by the current crisis in Somalia. He had to spend many nights searching for food and water on the streets.

He eventually arrived to Siliga where he was reunited with his family. They are all supported now by the camps manager, Sa’adiya, a member of the local community.

“(Sa’adiya) is helping us,” says Adam. “She has looked after us ever since we’ve been here, and we’re thankful.”
Siliga is an umbrella camp which oversees 170 smaller camps and services more than 20,000 households.

“The camp is one of the biggest in Mogadishu”, says Hassan Ismail Mohamed, head of Islamic Relief’s emergency programme in Somalia.

“Islamic Relief supports IDPs in the camp through the provision of health care, food distribution, education, and now we are expanding the programme to include water and sanitation.”

The camp sits on the grounds of the former U.S. Embassy in Somalia - all that remains of the embassy building now is rubble.

“I came from Kenya and found the building flattened...What happened?’ I asked myself”, said AbdelAziz, an Islamic Relief camp worker.

As well as providing people with food, water and shelter, Islamic Relief also conducts proper health care assessments for the people living in Siliga—a three-person health team staffs a clinic that sees about 100 people a day with a variety of conditions, the most common being measles.

“Before, the lack of drugs meant we had to transfer patients. With Islamic Relief’s help, we don’t need to anymore,” says Aisha Osman Abdi, a nurse at the clinic.

Adam believes the conditions in Siliga are much better than conditions back home but his main concern is the well-being of his family and his ability to return home and have a normal life.

“Insha’Allah things continue to improve. I have hope for the future,” he says.