New annual report gives 2 million reasons to support Zamzam Foundation and its vital work.

“All these areas are fundamentally important for day-to-day survival in the communities we serve and for our country’s future prosperity, peace, and climate resilience,” write Shuaib Abdullatif and Omar Jama – Zamzam’s Chair and Executive Director – in their foreword to the report. “This annual report shows the important work accomplished in our 30th anniversary year to support our brothers and sisters affected by conflict, floods, and Somalia’s worst drought in 70 years — and to help build a brighter future for all our people. 

“We owe a huge debt of gratitude to our board of trustees and the dedicated staff and energetic volunteers who continue to work tirelessly to feed the hungry, protect the vulnerable, meet the basic needs of the marginalised, and empower families to lift themselves out of poverty. Without such generous support and hard work, it would be impossible for us to have a significant impact in such challenging circumstances.” 

Zamzam’s annual report is full of information about the challenging context in which we operate and our wide-ranging work to support and empower the poor and marginalised. The 40-page report includes:

• • An overview of our vision, mission, strategy, and core values 
  • A summary of our development through three decades of history since Zamzam was established in an unprecedented humanitarian crisis after the collapse of the central government in 1991 
  • Key statistics on our income and expenditure, the aid we have delivered, and our impact on the lives and livelihoods of Somalia’s poorest families 
  • Seven sections detailing our approach and delivery in seven distinct but complementary programme areas, from emergency relief and health care to education and peacebuilding 
  • Over 50 photographs and individual success stories that bring our work to life 
  • A list of the 38 local, national, and international donors and partners who support our work.

“The numbers that define Somalia’s humanitarian crisis are mind-blowing,” our annual report says. “Seventy per cent of our people live in poverty, over 7 million cannot be sure where their next meal is coming from, and nearly half the country’s 16.9 million population need humanitarian aid to survive. The lives of 1.8 million of our children are at risk because they are acutely malnourished. Behind these stark numbers are ordinary Somalis showing extraordinary resilience and resourcefulness in the face of extreme suffering.” 

The life-saving and life-changing aid delivered by Zamzam’s hard-working teams on the ground across Somalia, captured in the report, included: 

• • $6 million worth of emergency aid, healthcare, and livelihoods programmes benefiting over 800,000 people  
  • Health facilities and mobile clinics providing services to over 113,000 people. We treated 7,000 women and children for acute malnutrition, while over 35,000 people received vaccinations against deadly diseases, maternity care, treatment for tuberculosis, or sight-saving cataract surgery 

• • New wells and boreholes providing an extra 300,000 people with clean water 
  • $2.9 million worth of education and orphan programmes to build a brighter future for over 15,000 of Somalia’s poorest children. We enrolled 600 new children into our orphans programme, which now provides support to the families of 12,000 orphans 
  • Support for over 3,300 farmers and small family businesses through a combination of grants, loans, livestock, seeds, tools, and the loan of machinery to prepare land for cultivation 
  • Seasonal distributions of food, qurbani meat and Eid gifts benefiting over 900,000 people as 6 million Somalis faced acute food insecurity in Ramadan and the months following 
  • Peacebuilding initiatives to resolve inter-clan and intra-clan conflicts over scarce resources such as water and pasture in three regions.  

Empowering women and young people to determine their own development is a crucial and fundamental aspect of the way Zamzam operates, and stories of inspiring women feature prominently in the annual report. We are proud that in 2022 our commitment to gender equity, justice, and women’s empowerment was recognised with a certificate of achievement from the International Labour Organisation. 

The annual report records that our generous donors contributed $16.9 million to Zamzam in 2022. A quarter of these funds came from our three biggest institutional donors: Alnajat Charity (10.8%), Islamic Development Bank (8.2%), and Muslim Aid Australia (6.8%). Over $1.5 million of the total (6.6 per cent) came from individual supporters and donors – making individuals the fourth-largest single source of income. 

In allocating funds to implement our strategic plan, we spent over $12.8 million on directly supporting people in need through our seven key programme areas — 84.6 per cent of the total. The other 15.4 per cent was spent on project support and administrative costs to keep all our programmes running in an integrated, efficient and effective way.