Sirad Diriye Ahmed - Her Story - Somaliland.

May 2017 - 200 Water Survival Box

The photo above shows her retutning home with 2 of her son's.

A powerful tropical cyclone with winds in excess of 120 km/per hour and rain hit Lughaya District destroying houses, schools, health centers, boreholes, water wells, farms and caused deaths of 59 people. World Vision distributed 200 Water Survival Boxes to the cyclone affected families in four target villages under Lughaya district. The supported families were selected by the village committee and the community traditional leaders who collaborated well World Vision to distribute the Survival Boxes to the right beneficiaries for the right time.

Sirad Diriye Ahmed, a mother of 9 children is one of the families that were affected by the cyclone that swept across the coastal of Somaliland. Sirad lives in Tuurka Village, Lughaya district of Somaliland.
Narrating her ordeal with the cyclone, Sirad recalls the dreadful night when it happened. “It was midnight when the heavy rains with strong winds started, my husband, children and I were sleeping. We were all woken by the loud sound of thunder. Everybody was scared as we had never experienced such strong winds with floods moving at fast speed.”
“Our house (traditional Somalia hut) was not strong enough to protect us, the winds started to shake it, I told my children to move out and run into another house close by. A few minutes after we came out the hut was destroyed by the winds and swept away. The floods swept everything from our home, but we are thankful nobody was injured,” she continues.

After the rains stopped, the family was left without shelter or food. All their belongings had been swept by the floods. “Although we survived the situation really bad for us after the cyclone. We had no food, no water, no shelter or medicines. We didn’t even have something to cover our heads for 48 hours. My 12-year-old son Ahmed fell sick, I was not able to take him to the health centre because it was also destroyed by the cyclone,” she explains.“On the fifth day after the cyclone, I decided to walk to the nearly village which (about 18kilometres away) where I was hoping to get medicine. The checked him and told my child had Pneumonia. He told us to buy medicine but I had no money to pay for it. I then called one of my relatives who sent me some money to buy medicine,” Sirad says adding that her child recovered after getting treatment. The cyclone affected 168,000 people. To help those affected, World Vision provided water survival boxes to 60 households (about 360 people) to help them with immediate needs.

“Thanks to World Vision for their support and giving these things -- utensils, clothes, tent, Water Aqua filter,” Sirad expresses her joy.