Life expectancy in Somalia is just 59 years, more than fourteen years below the global average across the African continent. One in eight Somali children dies before reaching the age of five, and 1.6 million children are acutely malnourished.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says most of Somalia’s disease outbreaks can be attributed to lack of clean water resources, low vaccination rates, a shortage of functional health facilities, and limited capacity for rapid response to disease alerts. Zamzam Foundation’s specialist water and health teams are doing vital work to tackle these challenges.

Nine out of ten children in Somalia have not been vaccinated against deadly diseases such as measles, TB and polio, and nine out of ten young mothers do not receive a health check-up within 48 hours of giving birth. UNICEF says that four in every 100 Somali children die during the first month of life, and one in 20 women aged 15-49 die every year from pregnancy or birth-related complications.

Children who do not have enough food are particularly susceptible to infectious diseases, anaemia, vitamin A deficiency, and acute malnutrition. In its most severe form, malnutrition carries a risk of severe muscle wasting, stunted growth, and even starvation.