Qatar Charity lays foundation stone for Somalian village

Qatar Charity has laid the foundation stone for an integrated residential village for the displaced in Baidoa, Somalia. The village includes 67 housing units, a health center, an elementary and middle school, a mosque, a vocational training center, an artesian well, and a center for memorizing the Holy Quran. It is expected that it will benefit more than 12,000 displaced people in Baidoa, in the Somali province of Bay. In his speech, the President of the Southwest State of Somalia, Abdul Aziz Hassan Mohamed, said, "the construction of the residential village will ease the burdens on thousands of families who have been displaced from their homes and villages due to drought," praising the pioneering role of Qatar Charity through interventions that address the needs of the displaced and the affected. He stated that Qatar is a brotherly country to the Somali people, for standing by them in a time of adversity, as it responded to the calls for help of the Somali people, who were affected by the delay in the rainy seasons, which led to the exposure of half of the Somali population to a drought that made them need urgent assistance. For his part, Assistant CEO of the International Operations and Programs Sector at Qatar Charity Nawaf Al Hammadi indicated that Qatar Charity chose Baidoa, the second largest city in which the displaced live, to build an integrated village to support displaced families facing malnutrition and lack of necessary services, alleviate their suffering and improving their living and housing conditions, and creating an appropriate learning environment, by building sustainable housing and adequate basic services.