Crossinator

There hasn't been a lot of good news coming out of Somalia lately as aid groups are contemplating pulling out their staff due to several aid workers being killed. Recently three elders were killed while distributing aid in a refugee camp outside Mogadishu.

Here are some stats provided in a recent e-mail from UNICEF's USA Fund:

• More than 100,000 displaced persons in Afgoye receive safe drinking water from UNICEF—over half a million liters a day.
• One in six persons displaced from the capitol, Mogadishu, is a child under five, and UNICEF is there providing lifesaving, nutritious meals.
• UNICEF provides aid to more than 40,000 persons west of Mogadishu, where the start of the rainy season has forced many families to crowd tiny shelters too small to lie down to sleep.

UNICEF is one of the few organizations working in this war torn country. You can read more about their work and hear from Clay Aiken's perspective what is happening in the country.

I've recently been able to chat more with one of my Somali colleagues and I've been learning more about what led up to the civil war and how the crisis continues. I forget the exact number of years but he has been here between 15 and 20 years. He was a wealthy man in Somalia earning $1,000's of dollars a week as a farmer and businessman. Now he is an associate educator at a middle school. He happened to be a part of the wrong clan when the civil war broke out - doing everything he could to ensure his family fled to safety. He holds no hopes of going back home. It is a sad story but he is making the most of it for himself and his family.

Pray for him and pray for those who aren't able to flee the violence. And heck while you are at it why not pray for those perpetrating the violence!