MEAL Organization

📍 From Drought to Displacement: A Story Repeated Too Often

This photo captures the harsh reality faced by newly displaced families living in bush-made shelters constructed from collected clothes and mats. In front of one such shelter sits a newly displaced woman and her disabled child from Bakool, forced to flee after prolonged drought destroyed her harvest and claimed her livestock—her only source of survival.

Like thousands of others, she arrived in Mogadishu searching for safety and a chance to rebuild her life. Yet, until now, she has not received any humanitarian assistance.

Today, MEAL’s enumerator is registering her details using KOBO Single Registration Form (SRF) in preparation for the distribution of plastic sheets, a critical first step toward improving shelter conditions and reducing exposure to protection risks.

We sincerely thank IOM and the Common Pipeline for their support in providing plastic sheets, which offer immediate relief for newly displaced households. However, this situation also highlights a critical gap:
👉 Plastic sheets alone are not enough.

Displaced families urgently need full NFI kits, livelihood support to restore self-reliance, and protection services—especially for women and girls who face heightened risks in informal settlements.

At MEAL, we continue to advocate for integrated, dignity-centered humanitarian responses that go beyond emergency shelter to address long-term survival, protection, and resilience.

🤝 No family should be left to survive displacement alone.

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CARE UNICEF Somalia World Food Programme IOM - UN Migration IOM Somalia Save the Children UK United Nations OCHA UNFPA Somalia UNFPA UN Women

🚨 Responding to Recurrent Displacement and Protection Risks in Mogadishu

New internal displacements and forced evictions continue to be a recurrent humanitarian reality, pushing already vulnerable families into unsafe living conditions with limited access to basic services. In informal settlements, women and girls face heightened risks of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) due to overcrowding, lack of privacy, poor shelter, and inadequate non-food items.

Evidence from humanitarian protection assessments consistently shows that the absence of essential household items and safe shelter increases exposure to exploitation, abuse, and negative coping mechanisms, particularly for displaced women, adolescent girls, and female-headed households.

In response, MEAL, in partnership with the IOM Common Pipeline, is providing life-saving Non-Food Item (NFI) assistance to vulnerable households affected by displacement and eviction in Daynile and Kahda districts. This support aims to restore dignity, improve household safety, and mitigate protection risks by ensuring access to essential items needed for daily survival.

At MEAL, we recognize that timely NFI assistance is not only relief—it is protection. We remain committed to advocating for durable solutions, protection-centered responses, and the rights of displaced communities to live in safety and dignity.

🤝 Together, we stand with displaced families and work to reduce risks, save lives, and protect the most vulnerable.



United Nations
World Food Programme
UNICEF Somalia
IOM - UN Migration
SODMA Somalia
CARE
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency