News update

Zamzam Foundation supported over 2.2 million people across Somalia in 2023, according to the organisation’s newly published Annual Report.

In a year of climate extremes in which the worst floods for decades followed the worst drought in living memory, Zamzam teams were on hand to provide life-saving emergency aid to 111,000 people and to support nearly a million people through seasonal food distributions. The organisation also invested significantly in health, clean water, sustainable livelihoods, education, and peacebuilding.

“This report affirms the positive impact of programmes implemented by Zamzam Foundation to support Somalia’s poorest people,” write Shuaib Adullatif and Omar Jama – Zamzam’s Chair and Executive Director – in their foreword to the report.

“Our aim is to support and empower the most vulnerable – including pregnant and breastfeeding women, malnourished and orphaned children, the elderly, and people with disabilities – and to inspire and equip the next generation through education and training. We would like to thank our board of trustees and our staff and volunteers for their hard work in the face of so many challenges this year. Their energy and effort have been outstanding.”

Zamzam’s annual report is full of information about the challenging context in which the organisation operates and the impact of its wide-ranging work. It also refers for the first time to exciting plans for Zamzam to branch out and establish a presence in the United Kingdom through a close partnership with a UK charity called Somali Relief and Development Forum.

The 36-page report includes:

• An overview of Zamzam’s vision, mission, and core values
• Key statistics on income and expenditure, aid delivered, and impact on the lives and livelihoods of the poorest families across Somalia
• Eight sections detailing Zamzam’s approach and delivery in eight distinct but complementary programme areas, from emergency relief and health care to education and peacebuilding
• A special feature on work to empower women and girls, who are described as “resourceful, resilient and a bedrock of our society” in the Somalia Women’s Charter
• Over 50 photographs and eight individual success stories that bring the organisation’s positive impact to life
• A list of nearly 50 local, national, and international partners who support Zamzam’s work.

Somalia is not only one of the very poorest nations but also heads the rankings for vulnerability to conflict (Fragile States Index) and to climate change (Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative index – ND-GAIN). It was a huge relief, the report says, to see the end of the worst drought on record with the onset of the Gu rains from March 2023 onwards. There was a stark reminder, however, of a different aspect of climate vulnerability later in the year when heavy Deyr rains resulted in the worst floods for a generation, affecting 2.5 million people.

The lifesaving and life-changing aid delivered by Zamzam’s hard-working teams on the ground across Somalia, captured in the report, included:

• $8.2 million worth of emergency aid, healthcare, and livelihoods programmes benefiting over 430,000 people
• Health facilities and mobile clinics that provided services to over 228,000 people. Zamzam staff treated 6,923 women and children for acute malnutrition, while nearly 45,000 people received vaccinations against deadly diseases, maternity care, treatment for tuberculosis, or sight-saving cataract surgery
• 154 new wells plus 15 new and 10 rehabilitated boreholes, providing 692,000 people with clean water
• $2.8 million worth of education and orphan care programmes to build a brighter future for some of Somalia’s poorest children. Zamzam enrolled 532 new children into its orphans programme, which provided support to the families of 11,500 orphans in 2023
• Support for over 26,000 farmers and small family businesses through a combination of grants, loans, livestock, seeds, tools, and the loan of machinery to prepare land for cultivation
• Peacebuilding initiatives to resolve two clan conflicts over scarce resources such as water and pasture in three regions, enabling 30,000 people to live together more harmoniously.

The annual report records that Zamzam’s generous donors around the world contributed $16.4 million in 2023. The organisation’s three biggest institutional donors were Alnajat Charity (10.8% of income), the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (14%), and the Humanitarian Relief Foundation – IHH (14%).

Zamzam’s increasingly prominent role on the international stage included attending the UN’s summit on the Sustainable Development Goals and the 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) climate conference. In a landmark year for international outreach and advocacy, Zamzam became the first Somali charitable organisation to join the influential International Council of Voluntary Organisations (ICVA) and secured special consultative status with the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) – the UN’s central forum for discussing international economic and social issues.

Zamzam Foundation spent nearly $14.5 million in 2023 on directly supporting people in need — 85.5 per cent of the total, up 13 per cent on the previous year. The other 14.5 per cent was spent on project support and administrative costs to keep all programmes running in an integrated, efficient and effective way.