On the sun-scorched plains of Gabiley, Somaliland, where years of failing rains have pushed farming families to the edge, Islamic Relief’s Strengthening Community Resilience and Economic Empowerment Project (SHEEP) is helping communities rebuild, one solar-powered well at a time.
Mukhtar has farmed the same land in Dhalladda village for his entire adult life. The 38-year-old father of 7 grows onions, cabbage, spinach, and peppers: crops that feed his family and provide the income his children depend on for school fees, clothes, and medicine.
But over the past 5 years, the rains his farming relies on have become dangerously unpredictable. And when the rains fail in this region, everything that depends on them fails too.
“Our farm is our main source of food,” Mukhtar says. “When we don’t plant, it means challenging situations for all of us.”
A crisis hiding in plain sight
Somaliland sits at the heart of one of the world’s most severe and ongoing climate emergencies. After 4 consecutive failed rainy seasons across the Horn of Africa, Somalia’s federal government declared a national drought emergency in November 2025. More than 6.5 million people – roughly 1 in every 4 Somalis – now face acute food insecurity, and nearly 1.8 million children under the age of 5 are expected to suffer acute malnutrition this year.
In Mukhtar’s community, the impact was felt in daily, grinding detail. The shallow well that once supplied his farm had begun to struggle. Running the community’s diesel – powered pump cost around $5 (approx. £3.74) a day in petrol. In a good year, that was manageable. But as harvests shrank, so did the income to pay for it.
“With the drought, our harvests became smaller, and our income dwindled”, Mukhtar explains. “We were completely shattered, not knowing where the hope or light would come from.”
The system that transformed a village
That hope came through Islamic Relief’s SHEEP project, launched in January 2023. For Mukhtar and Dhalladda village, the project delivered 3 transformative changes: rehabilitation of their shallow well, installation of a solar-powered water pump, and irrigation pipes connecting water directly to their farms.
No more fuel costs. No more dependence on diesel that grows more expensive every year. Somalia has something more reliable than petrol, and now it was finally being put to work.
“Islamic Relief came to us and informed us they would install a solar-powered system for our shallow well and distribute pipes to the farmers,” Mukhtar recalls. “I was fortunate to be among those selected by the committee to benefit.”
They no longer worry about fuel
The difference, Mukhtar says, was immediate.
“The effect of the support is tremendous. We no longer worry about fuel costs since solar power is free. The pipes are long and reliable, allowing us to cultivate more fertile land. Thanks to Islamic Relief, we can water our farms every day.”
Watering crops every day, rather than whenever fuel is affordable, has given Mukhtar something that had quietly disappeared during the drought years: the ability to plan. He can decide when to plant, how much to grow, and which crops to rotate. He has moved from simply surviving a season to actively managing one.
Islamic Relief’s field team working across Gabiley and surrounding districts has seen this shift reflected across the communities the project serves.
“Practical support like solar pumps and irrigation pipes provide farmers with a reliable, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly way to access water, improving irrigation, increasing crop yields, reducing dependence on expensive fuel as well as restores the dignity and sense of agency that comes with it,” says Hodan Hassan, Islamic Relief programme manager in Somalia.
Building resilience for the long term
For Mukhtar, the change goes deeper than water and crops. “As a farmer, my primary ambition is to see our land flourish and yield a consistent harvest throughout the year,” he says. “I long for my farm to become a testament to the dedication I have poured into it.”
He is clear sighted, though, about the challenges that remain. The droughts across Somalia are becoming more severe, not less, and water sources that communities have depended on for generations are under growing pressure from a climate that seems to give back less each year.
“Islamic Relief’s assistance has been a lifeline, reducing our worries about water. “However, with droughts becoming more severe, digging new wells or providing more dependable water sources would significantly enhance our lives.”
The crisis pushing communities like Mukhtar’s to the brink did not begin here. It is global in origin. Somaliland contributes a fraction of the world’s carbon emissions – yet its farmers, its children, and its land bear a disproportionate share of the consequences. Responding to that injustice – with practical, community-driven support that works with people, not just for them – is at the heart of what Islamic Relief does.
Donate today to support sustainable solutions for more communities, and to continue helping families like Mukhtar’s in Somalia and around the world.
