Ifrah, a 27-year-old International Rescue Committee officer, counsels women and girls who have survived violence at Haloweyn refugee camp in southern Ethiopia, the aid group said in an August 2019 profile.
Somali refugees at Dollo Ado in Ethiopia’s Somali region, photographed in September 2011. (P. Heinlein, Voice of America / Wikimedia Commons, public domain) [file photo]
Ifrah works as a Women’s Protection and Empowerment Program Officer and said community leaders at first would not listen to her because they thought she was too young. “Now, these community leaders are my friends,” she told the IRC.
Her day starts at 6 a.m. By 8 a.m. she is at the Wellness Center in the camp, which Irish Aid supports and which offers counseling and a safe space for women and girls, the profile said. More than 50,000 refugees, many escaping conflict and famine in Somalia, had fled to Haloweyn, the IRC said.
“The most common issue that I see is domestic violence,” Ifrah said. “Women come to the center after they’ve been physically assaulted by their husbands and I offer them support.”
She said men’s attitudes had improved over three or four years, but some still complained in the market or at gatherings about their wives visiting the center. “We have to work with men to be accountable to women and girls and take action on the prevention of violence,” she said.
Women in the camp also lacked work, and the center offered skills training, the IRC said. Maryam, a 30-year-old widow whose name the IRC changed for her protection, said she sought help after a neighbor assaulted her and her daughter. She received counseling and referrals to report the case, and the abuse stopped, she said. She hoped to keep working as a hairdresser.
Ifrah said one of her best days at work was when a man who raped a 14-year-old girl was arrested, charged and sentenced to prison after the center helped the girl with health and legal referrals.
She said she works away from her family; her mother has looked after her baby since the child was seven months old, and she tries to visit every weekend, though only for half a day. The profile was first published by IRC Europe and also carried by ReliefWeb.
Sources: International Rescue Committee (Aug. 2019), ReliefWeb (Aug. 19, 2019)