Kamar’s life was never easy. She got married when she was underage. Later, working as a porter, she lived in a small house in the midst of an insecure environment.

“You will be carrying something for a client and then the shelling starts and you have nowhere to run; many friends died trying to earn some money for their children,” she narrates.

Kamar put up with continual mortaring and shelling for a long time. She was finally forced to run away when her house was hit by a heavy mortar that killed two of her children and wounded the rest. Kamar, her husband and their six children moved to the camp.

When HINNA, a local implementing partner with UNDP, started the Gaheyr School Rehabilitation Project, she opened a small shop close to the project site selling various products to the project employees. Her husband stays at home looking after the children. The USD 6 she earns every day enables her to provide two meals a day to her family. She has also sent her children to school.

Kamar is positive about her new job and new life. She keeps thanking HINNA and UNDP for implementing the project.

“I don’t want to think of what will happen to my family after three months, though I know that my job will stop, but we as human beings rely only on Allah,” says Kamar.

She appreciates the concept of generating employment for vulnerable people like herself and thus improving their standard of living.

The Gaheyr School Rehabilitation Project is being implemented under UNDP’s Employment Generation for Early Recovery Project. The Employment Generation for Early Recovery Project seeks to create income and jobs for vulnerable groups such as women, youth, and IDPs and their host communities in South Central Somalia.

*name has been changed