Sustainable Livelihood

The Dadaab Area program’s Livelihood Sector seeks to enable youth, women and vulnerable persons access and achieve sufficient and sustainable livelihoods targeting both the refugees in Hagadera and its immediate host Community members.

The major activities include Vocational skills trainings funded by ELCA and CoS, aiming at empowering the youth, women and men with skills to enable them fend for their families through self employment, business and other formal employment thus contributing improved to household income. There is one Vocational Training Center in Hagadera offering tailoring and dressmaking, tie and dye and ICT training to an average of 180 trainees per year. Another 50 women in an established women group are supported with materials for short term skills training courses (tie and dye, carpet making and the production of liquid soap and hand woven items) which generate income from the sale of products. Based on available funding, successful graduates are awarded with start-up kits and trained on basic business development and management skills which are essential in running the businesses. With increased impetus to repatriation of Somalia Refugees, the demand for livelihoods skills has proportionately increased.

Equally the host community members benefit from training on soap production and marketing of their products. They are also the pre-selected traders contracted to supply fresh fruits and vegetables to the beneficiaries of the Fresh Food Voucher initiative.

LWF also implements a restricted cash transfer for Fresh Food Voucher funded by DKH/ BMZ targeting 15,300 Persons with Specific Needs – Persons with Disabilities, Children with Disabilities and Elderly) through Safaricom’s (Kenyan telephone service provider) web based fund management system called SUREPAY. The project aims to improve the nutritional status of the target group while establishing a sustainable demand for fresh foods (fruits and vegetable) and contributing to access of the same to all refugees. It also contributes to improved social and economic relations between the local host and refugees communities. The project is phased out over a period of 3 years.

The Sector further supports host community farmers in Garissa through training on best farming practices, supply of farm inputs and equipments to enhance quality and continuous supply of the fresh fruits and vegetables to the traders in Dadaab.