WFP strengthens the youth of today for a better tomorrow
Abaker Yagoub Ishag is a youth representative in Ottash internally displaced persons (IDP) camp in western Sudan’s Darfur region. He acts as a spokesperson for the camp’s young people who have left their homes and sought safety there.
He is a voice for their thoughts, fears and requests as they work together to strengthen their situation and rebuild their lives. He speaks with the humanitarian and donor communities on their behalf to seek improvements in their daily lives.
Like thousands of young people across Darfur, Abaker fled violence — he was uprooted from his home of Algoz Algharbi, in South Darfur’s Buram locality, in 2006.
“When we arrived in Ottash camp our situation was very difficult, because we didn’t have anything to eat,” he said. “However, we thank God that the World Food Programme (WFP), other organizations and some of our relatives provided us with assistance. WFP has provided us with ration cards since 2006.”
At Ottash IDP camp, Abaker and his family started receiving food assistance from WFP. The food rations were mainly sorghum, corn and soya blend and salt. With these items, Abaker was able to provide sustenance for his family. He was able to care for his loved ones in a way he felt that, as a young father, was his responsibility.
“Although our situation at the time of our arrival was very difficult, it is now better than before,” he said.
In an effort to improve its support, WFP then shifted from providing food to paper vouchers, which the IDPs used to purchase ingredients from locally contracted traders. This approach allowed them to buy the food of their choice from a list of 18 different items, thus improving their diets and boosting local markets as well.
In October 2016, with support of UKaid, WFP shifted to a more innovative mechanism of assistance through cash-based transfers (CBTs), in which IDPs receive cash instead of paper vouchers. That allows them to buy the food items of their choice, at the time of their choice, from the trader of their choice — thus restoring human dignity.
It gave people a sense of freedom and empowerment, a step towards restoring the normalcy of daily life which they so miss or — as in the case of youth such as Abaker — have never previously experienced, having spent all of their adult life in the camp.
“There is now a comfort in redeeming [food] with a freedom of choice in spending money,” Abaker said.
“The most important change that happened as a result of the cash programme is that now there is no crowding at the distribution centres,” he added. “Any woman or man, young or old, can take their pre-paid cash card and go to the trader at any time and receive their entitlement, then go back to their home.”
In providing assistance to youth, by involving them in a decision-making process which directly impacts their own lives, WFP is restoring confidence in them and in a better tomorrow.
The UKaid-funded cash-based transfers programme was first officially launched in Ottash camp in January 2017, following a visit to the camp by UKaid officials to see first-hand the project’s successful implementation on the ground.
