Somalia is home to more than 3.3 million internally displaced people, according to UNHCR, among the largest displaced populations in the world and women and children make up the overwhelming majority of those forced to flee. Displacement strips away the ordinary protections a settled community provides: family structures fracture, and the risk of abuse, exploitation, and separation rises sharply, especially for children and women arriving in overcrowded, under-serviced sites. A family that receives protection support and psychosocial care early has a far better chance of staying together and rebuilding, rather than being pulled apart by a crisis it didn’t choose. Our protection programs focus on safety, dignity, and reintegration.
Our Strategy
Displacement, conflict, and the collapse of formal state protection systems leave children, women, and marginalized groups exposed to risks abuse, exploitation, family separation that food or health assistance alone doesn’t reach.
We combine direct case management and psychosocial support for the highest-risk individuals with community-based systems committees, reporting pathways that identify and respond to protection concerns locally and sustainably. That extends our reach well beyond what our own field staff alone could cover, and keeps protection work embedded in the community rather than dependent on our continued presence.
Areas of Focus
Orphan Care & Social Welfare Support
Sponsorship, shelter support, family tracing, and psychosocial care aimed at reintegration, prioritizing family- and community-based care over institutional care wherever it’s safely possible.
Child Protection Services
Case management, abuse prevention, safeguarding, and referral pathways that identify at-risk children early and connect them to the services they need.
Women & Girls Protection Support
Safe spaces, dignity support, protection referrals, and awareness programs addressing gender-based violence risks that rise sharply during displacement and crisis.
Support to IDPs, Returnees & Vulnerable Communities
Emergency support, reintegration assistance, and shelter referrals for a population that has often lost every other form of safety net.
Psychosocial Support (PSS)
Trauma counseling and emotional support for people affected by conflict and displacement, addressing needs that go unmet by food, shelter, or medical aid alone.
Community-Based Protection Mechanisms
Community protection committees and reporting pathways that put early identification of risk in the hands of the community itself, not just field staff.
Disability & Inclusion Support
Accessibility support and social inclusion for people with disabilities, who are often the most excluded group within an already vulnerable population.
Emergency Relief & Social Assistance
Direct support for widows, the elderly, and people with disabilities households with the fewest alternative means of support and the least capacity to recover unaided.
