Child sponsorship changes lives. You will be helping the people of Gabiley, Somaliland build a better future.

Location
North-west Somaliland, 54km west of the capital, Hargeisa.

Located in the north west of Somaliland, Gabiley is flat and prone to both drought and flooding. Women and girls often have to walk three kilometres to collect clean water and some families have no choice but to drink dirty water. In the rainy season, the poor roads can become impassable.

Life in Gabiley
There are two seasons in Gabiley - rainy and dry.

Somaliland is one of the most impoverished countries in the world and an extremely high number of families in Gabiley live in poverty. Houses are built from wood, cloth, tin and rope. Most people rely on farming to survive – growing maize, sorghum and some vegetables as well as fruit like guavas and oranges to sell.

But there is a shortage of fertile land and droughts frequently devastate the crops. Many families don't have a safe water supply and waterborne diseases are common – a problem which gets worse during the rainy seasons.

Family bonds and social relationships are strong in Gabiley and people are used to working together to help each other survive.

ActionAid's work in Gabiley
For children in Gabiley, education is the vital step towards escaping poverty forever. But most of the schools in this remote region need urgent repair, while extreme poverty and cultural pressure means many children - girls in particular - don't go to school. With your support, ActionAid can help to tackle these problems.

We are rebuilding and refurbishing schools and are providing vital teaching materials. We are also helping more poor children to attend school and are recruiting women teachers to provide girls with positive role models.

With your support, the children of Gabiley now have every hope of escaping the poverty they were born into.

Read the updates below to find out how the community in Gabiley is benefitting from child sponsorship:

• February 2010: child sponsorship begins in Gabiley
• February 2011: improving education in Wajalay village, and more...
• August 2011: new classrooms, farming skills, clean water and more...