Maryam*, 40, is raising eleven children in Bander Beyla District, Puntland, where two years of declining fish catches left the family in debt and several children out of school. Through a Save the Children project funded by the German Federal Foreign Office, she received 90 dollars a month for four months, allowing her to buy food, store water and return children to class. She is now a member of a community early warning committee, helping neighbours prepare for climate shocks and calling for continued support so her children can stay in school.
On the coast of Puntland, a mother of eleven watched the lobster disappear and her family's only income go with it. A small monthly payment, and a new role warning her neighbours of disaster, helped her hold the line.
Some mornings, the pot stayed empty.
The children pulled on their school clothes and left the house without eating. The stove was cold. There was nothing to cook, and so nothing was cooked.
"Before receiving the ninety dollars, sometimes the children would go without breakfast, and food was not cooked. But now they have breakfast before going to school," says Maryam*, who is 40 and raising eleven children in Bander Beyla District, on Puntland's northern coast.
She has lived here most of her life. She was born in Hargeisa and came to the coast at seventeen, alongside her brother's family, and later married into the community. Five daughters, six sons. Her eldest is now at university. Her youngest is not yet in school. For years, the family read the same rhythm everyone here reads: the boats go out, the catch comes in, the household holds together.
Then the catch stopped coming.
A small payment that lands where it is needed
For families on the edge of a crisis, two quiet tools can decide whether they cope or collapse.
The first is cash assistance: a small, regular payment that a family receives directly and decides how to spend, whether that means food this week, school fees the next, or water stored before the dry season bites. The second is an early warning system: a chain of alerts that tells a community a drought or flood is coming, early enough to act before it arrives, rather than after the damage is done.
In Somalia, where five failed rainy seasons in a row pushed more than eight million people, including over five million children, into need, both tools matter enormously. Maryam's family received the first. Maryam herself now helps run the second.
The sea that emptied
For as long as she can remember, the household lived from the water.
"Our family depends on the sea. My husband used to work in Bayla and sold lobsters, but now they are no longer available. For the last two years, the sea's production has declined," she says.
The numbers tell the rest. Monthly costs run to around 300 dollars. The family carries debts of more than 1,200. There is no land, no savings to fall back on, no relatives abroad sending money home. For the past two months, her husband has had no work at all.
The first thing to give way was school. Maryam had to pull two of her children out of class, an eighteen-year-old who had reached grade eight and a thirteen-year-old in grade five. Both wanted to stay. The money simply was not there. Six of her children are now out of school for the same reason, with fees that would come to about 70 dollars a month.
"The biggest challenge I feel as a mother is my children's education," she says. The sentence sits at the centre of everything else.
Ninety dollars, four months
Help came through a programme run by Save the Children with funding from the German government, working alongside Puntland's disaster management authorities along this stretch of coast.
The family was chosen for the reasons that defined their year: no steady income, no outside support, a father out of work, and a large family to feed. From October 2025 to January 2026, they received 90 dollars a month.
What the payment bought was not luxury. It was breathing room, spent the way a mother who knows her household spends it.
"We stored water, bought food for the children, and I used part of it for their education," she says.
The empty pot filled again. The children ate before school. And some of those who had stayed home went back to class.
"There was a big change. Before, we could not afford school fees, and some children stayed at home. But when we received support, we sent them back to school," she says.
The messages that move a village
Maryam's part in this is not only as a parent receiving help. It is as a neighbour passing it on.
Since December 2024 she has been one of eleven people on a community committee trained to read the warning signs of climate shocks and to spread the word when danger is near.
"I am also among an 11-member community committee working with Save the Children that received training on climate change and early warning," she says.
When an alert reaches the coast, the committee turns it into action people can take in time.
"When we receive an early warning message, we inform people to move away from water channels, move livestock to higher ground, and prepare for drought," she says.
The same network carries messages about staying healthy. "In health matters, people were sensitized to vaccinate their children and maintain hygiene. The vaccination team vaccinated against measles," she says.
A few words, moving from one household to the next, can be the difference between a herd reaching high ground and a herd lost to a flood.
What she will not delay
The 90 dollars have stopped now. The sea has not refilled. The debts are still there, and so is the worry.
But something has shifted. A family that was going without breakfast is eating again. Children who had left school have returned to it. And a mother who once only received warnings now helps send them out.
Her ask is plain. "My message is that Somali people who are suffering should be supported. I recommend that Save continue the financial support for the community," she says.
What she holds onto is plainer still.
"Education cannot be delayed."
About the project
Maryam's family was supported through a project called Reducing the Impacts of Disasters through the Anticipatory Action Framework, funded by the German Federal Foreign Office (GFFO) and implemented by Save the Children. It runs across 14 sites in Bander Beyla District, in the Karkaar Region of Puntland, in partnership with the Puntland Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Disaster Management (MoHADM) and the Information Management Centre (IMC).
The project was built for a country that has learned to expect the worst of the weather. Five consecutive failed rainy seasons left more than 8 million people in Somalia, including 5.1 million children, in need of humanitarian assistance. Its aim is to help communities act before a shock arrives rather than after, by strengthening the early warning systems that alert people to coming droughts and floods, and by training local committees like Maryam's to turn those warnings into action. Alongside this, the project provides cash assistance, climate awareness training, hygiene promotion and vaccination support, with a particular focus on coastal communities whose livelihoods have been eroded by declining marine resources.
