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By ABDI LATIF DAHIR
It was surely an onerous moment. When Kristin Davis, the Oxfam ambassador well-known for her role in the series Sex and the City, cried on BBC News after describing her visit to Dadaab camp in Kenya, the Somalis all over the world reacted – with bitter antagonism and helpless rage.
The rage was widely transmitted through social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, where thousands of Somalis in the diaspora have put up a campaign to aid those in dire need of assistance in the Horn of Africa nation.
“If what she has seen made her cry, what do you think it should make us do when we see it? They are our people,” wrote a member on the wall of the Facebook group Somalis without Borders for Drought Relief.
The group is part of a wider initiative championed by Somalis all over the world to help those hard hit by the drought that has spread throughout south-central Somalia, and much of East Africa. The movement has largely focused on posting photo galleries, links to relief agencies on the ground, and relaying minute by minute developments on the situation of the refugees on the ground.
They have been able to call out for members to raise funds by attending barbeques, dinners, and Iftar sessions during Ramadhan; football tournaments; washing cars; and even rallies to help raise awareness of the calamity engulfing their brethren back in Somalia. Some even went to the extent of arranging short story competitions and poetry slams, just to sensitise the Somali community on the personal suffering of the people on the ground.
“These groups help raise awareness about the situation in Somalia,” said Abdibashir Ali, an economics student at the University of Minnesota, via email. Ali, who says he volunteered with several relief organisations, such as the American Refugee Committee and the American Relief Agency for the Horn of Africa (ARAHA), believes that the creators of these groups “had sincere intention to do the best they can to help”.
Famine
It is the first time the United Nations has declared a famine in Somalia since the 1990s when a UN-backed international response sent peacekeepers to the nation-state. Nevertheless, it is the biggest famine that has hit the Horn in 60 years, and the results of a culmination of over four years of no rain and harsh climate. This has led to over 3 million starving Somalis crossing into neighbouring countries to seek assistance – sometimes to no avail.
However, the main question troubling Somalis in the diaspora was whether the specified help would reach the people on the ground. This was because much of the affected area in south central Somalia is controlled by the al-Shabaab group, which has blocked aid agencies from operating in their territories. Besides, up until recently, the group dominated much of Mogadishu, the country’s capital, which has now become a safe haven for thousands trekking into the city to receive the meagre help provided by aid organisations.
Since official reports state that this is formally the first famine of the 21st century, the Web 2.0 that has characterised the dawn of the century has surely been able to feature high in the efforts to tackle this problem.
Facebook and Twitter have come to the rescue of an almost powerless people who had no clue on how to best converge their help for those in dismal need of it.
Thus, over a few months, youngsters have been able to assemble a strong crusade to rally increase in international response to the Somali famine, while urging – and to some extent goading – al-Shabaab to back off and allow aid and assistance to reach those on the ground.
The phrase; “Get to Dadaab or Die Trying” and “FeedSomalia” became famed hash tags on Twitter, while many urged the UN to use the ‘F’ word – that is famine – to describe the situation in the Horn of Africa nation long before the organisation decided to do exactly that.
Notable dismay
There was even a notable dismay among campaigners when the trending of the famine on Twitter was overtaken by news of the attacks in Norway on July 22 in Oslo, the country’s capital, and Utoya.
“The channels are uniting people all over the world and its awakening those who never knew there was calamity,” said Khes Bundid, a Kenyan-Somali blogger, who also participated in the Kenya4Kenyans campaign to fight hunger and drought.
Amidst this Internet battle, bank accounts have been opened from Mogadishu to Minnesota to assist the needy. This time, however, there is a catch: transparency rules the process of collecting and sending money, as more and more intelligence reports showed in the past that sources outside Somalia were aiding extremist groups like the al-Shabaab.
“As volunteers and contributors, we were able to keep track of how the help was reaching people in Dadaab,” said Ismahan Ali, who volunteered for the “Skip A Lunch” event that was organised by the Youth Kenya for Social Development. The event, which was initiated on Facebook, created awareness among Somalis in Kenya. This led to the donation of clothes and foodstuff by Somalis, mostly in Nairobi, which were transported to those affected by the drought.
Social media
When help seems to hit the wall, the Internet has always come as a last resort for Somalis. Ismahan Ali, who is also a popular Somali Facebook user, recounted how she used her social media account to sensitise her over 4,000 friends about the ‘Case for Farmaajo’. Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, popularly known as Farmajo was ousted as the Prime Minister of Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government after the country’s President, Sheikh Shariff Sheikh Ahmed, and the Speaker of the Parliament, Shariff Hassan Sheikh Aden, signed an agreement in Kampala extending the government’s mandate by a year.
Protesters came out supporting him, from the capital Mogadishu, to Galkayo in the northeast, and in Balad Hawo near the Kenyan border to Columbus, in the US. Somalis in Kenya also took to the streets in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate. Two people were even killed after security forces shot at demonstrators in Mogadishu.
This trend was also seen on the 51st celebrations of Somalia’s independence. Groups such as, We will on the 1st of July Put the Somali flag as our Pictures of Facebook, were created, which attracted over 23,000 supporters who put the flag on the exact day of independence.
No action
However, there might be a downside to all this. Many say that the support was reduced to ‘likes’ of certain pages while no action was translated on the ground. The channels, which are mostly limited to Facebook and Twitter and several other blogs, also limit how far an Internet campaign would be tangible on the ground.
These are “good ideas to raise awareness, but lack the human or real effects,” argues Abdibashir Ali.
“Just as we have ‘donor fatigue’, social network users have a fatigue of seeing same things almost every day, and in the end will avoid it.”
For now, everyone is hopeful that social networks will work out their miracle – that a sympathetic or a sad emotion posted on Facebook will mean real support for those afflicted by the drought.
Many hope that they will skip a lunch, spare a coin, spread the word, and support a hungry child, man or woman.
“I'm not sure, but I think 50 per cent of the support is reaching the affected areas,” Bundid would like to believe.
His sentiments are shared by Ismahan. “I’m optimistic,” she says. “I hope this will work out in the long run.”
Source: The Africa Review
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