August 4th, 2025
New annual report shows Zamzam supported a record 2.63 million Somalis in year of significant growth
Zamzam Foundation supported 2.63 million people across Somalia in 2024, according to the organisation’s latest Annual Report.
Our life-saving and life changing work touched the lives of over 350,000 more Somalis than in 2023, a 13 per cent increase.
The full report can be accessed via a download link elsewhere on this page. At Zamzam UK we were encouraged to see how profound Zamzam’s impact has been, and excited to see our UK activities included for the first time and welcomed (see pages 3 and 34 of the report).
The dynamic growth in Zamzam’s reach was underpinned by strong growth in global income, which increased by $1.2 million – around £940,000. The organisation was able to spend a record $16.1 million (£12.6 million) on directly supporting people in need, an increase of 11 per cent.
The report includes inspiring success stories featuring individuals who have benefited from Zamzam’s support. They include farmer Abdikadir Arboow and shopkeeper Maryam Abdirahman, both pictured on this page.
Maryam is a positive example of the difference Zamzam’s investment in empowering women can make. Widowed at 30 and driven from her home village by conflict, she faced the daunting prospect of raising her eight children alone. Zamzam enrolled some of her children in its orphan sponsorship programme and provided materials and training to help her set up a small shop.
“Life was very difficult before we had the shop,” she says. “With the support of Zamzam, our living conditions have improved, and I have been able to provide for my children’s education and daily needs.”
Dealing with the effects of climate change can be a battle for farmers like Abdikadir. But he and other smallholders are seeing the benefits of climate-smart agriculture training and high-quality seeds provided by Zamzam.
“I’ve learned how to take care of my land better,” says the 25-year-old father of five. “I now have enough food to feed my family throughout the season, and the extra income has made a huge difference in our lives.”
The year of significant growth captured in the annual report was also a year of significant infrastructure building.
Zamzam Foundation built eight new schools – five in Jubaland and three more in Somaliland, Galmudug and Banadir. Two new clinics were opened in Gedo and Lower Juba, ensuring improved healthcare in deprived and hard-to-reach areas.
On the back of a 27 per cent increase in funds raised for water projects, Zamzam drilled 23 new boreholes, rehabilitated 14 more, and dug 135 new community wells.
The organisation’s two new health facilities brought the total to 28 – seven primary healthcare facilities, 16 specialist tuberculosis (TB) clinics and five mobile clinics supporting families living in displacement camps. Together these facilities provided vital healthcare for 182,334 people.
Zamzam teams provided maternal health care for 32,624 women, vaccinated 11,035 women and children against disease, and treated 3,181 people for TB. Over 35,000 women and children for acute malnutrition, with nutritional therapy provided for those worst affected, and Zamzam performed sign-saving cataract surgery on 2,536 people.
Zamzam seasonal programmes provided Ramadan food, qurbani meat and Eid gifts for a record 1.3 million people – a 32 per cent increase on the previous year.
“I hope this uplifting annual report will encourage our UK donors to continue supporting Zamzam’s work,” says our Chair of Trustees in the UK, Tahir Tahir. “Our support is needed more than ever in a country where 10.5 million people are living in poverty, 3.8 million have been driven from their homes by conflict and climate change, and 6 million rely on humanitarian aid to survive.”
The report says Zamzam’s emergency aid and livelihoods programmes were a lifeline for 110,009 Somalis affected by drought, floods and conflict. Vulnerable displaced people received life-saving food aid, shelter kits, cash assistance and livelihoods support.
To support livelihoods Zamzam assisted 7,318 farmers by providing seeds, tools, irrigation pumps, livestock, fodder, help with land preparation and training in climate-smart agriculture. Zamzam microfinance grants and loans empowered 132 families to earn a sustainable income through a wide range of enterprises including dairy and poultry farming, beekeeping, tuc-tuc taxis, tailoring, small shops and market stalls.
Zamzam education and orphans programmes supported more than 19,000 of Somalia’s poorest children and young people. Over 3,700 children were educated in seven Zamzam-managed schools and the families of 8,441 orphans benefited from sponsorship and livelihoods grants, giving many a chance to go to school that their families could not otherwise afford.
Click the image below to download the Annual Report
