Generous donors have continued to provide rice, food supplements and shelter. A batch of 440 pink tents has brightened up many shanty areas but more importantly has brightened up the lives of the recipients and provided shelter for cold nights and protection from disease-carrying mosquitoes.

In this world, having employment may not be enough to keep body and soul together and having an illness throws you on the mercy of others. Here are some examples of those helped this year.

Khadija is a lady who has three children, one boy and two girls who are deaf. Her husband is a watchman who earns 15,000 Djiboutian Francs ($83) per month.

She told us, “My husband’s salary is not enough for us. Each month I spend 5,000 df ($27) on milk for my children, and 3,000 ($17) on bus fares for my husband to get to work. That leaves 7,000 df ($38) which is not enough for us to survive the whole month. The rice helps us a lot, because I cannot buy vegetables and meat every day, so when I have rice I can cook it for lunch and for the dinner.”

Hassan and his wife and six children live in a dry wadi in a major city. Last fall it rained and the wadi filled with water, washing all their belongings away. Hassan also lives with TB and is under treatment.

He received a tent, built it up on makeshift stilts and now houses his family there. His family also received rice, which helps feed their family, as his wife does not make enough selling snacks on the street to feed and send her children to school. His wife sells little snacks on the street, making enough money for some of her children to have transport money to go to school.