Some 2,250 household in Tana River County majority of them who were displaced by the April floods today had reason to smile when Arid Land Development Focus (ALDEF) a Wajir based organization with the support of Secour Islamic France (SIF) slaughtered 450 goats and shared out the meat.
According to the ALDEF Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Ahmed Ibrahim Abdi, the Idul Adha cerebration that forms part of sharing with the less fortunate in the society will run for the next 3 days. The entire exercise will cost ALDEF 61,000 Euros or shs 7.1 million.
“This is an important day in Islamic calendar where we are celebrating the slaughter in which Abraham almost slaughtered his son but was replaced with a ram,” Abdi said.
“Our focus in Tana River is to support the IDP celebrate Idul Adha,” he added
The CEO said that a similar exercise was simultaneously taking place in Wajir where 700 goats were slaughtered and shared to 2,100 households in 16 pre-urban villages.
The IDP camps that benefited from the donation in Tana River include Madogo, Ziwani, Bakuyu, Anole, Taleo, Korio and Sala.
Sadiq Salat a resident of Sala thanked ALDEF for remembering the residents and enabling them celebrate Idul Adha with the rest of the Muslim world.
Khadija Makolo while thanking the organization said that the residents lost their crops to army worms and are in dire need of relief food assistance.
“We are entirely dependent on well wishers. We are appealing to other well wishers to come to our aid by providing seeds and other farm inputs to enable us get back on our feet,” Khadija added.
Similar sentiments were shared by Taleo village elder Mohamed Ramdhan who said that the IDPs were facing numerous challenges among them lack of a classroom for Early Childhood.
“We have enough children who are eager to go to school but as we speak they are learning under a tree. I am appealing to the well wishers to contruct a classroom for these children who are thirsty for an education,” Ramadhan said.
He said majority of the families who were displaced by the floods are struggling to food on the table and cannot afford to put up a classroom.