In Laba-Adle village, Somalia, Mulki’s days used to revolve around collecting water. Each morning, the 30-year-old would set out before dawn, her feet kicking up dust as she walked 8 kilometres to the nearest water source. When she returned, it would be with just enough water to last her 5 children another day.

But when droughts in her area worsened, Mulki joined the growing number of Somalis forced to buy water in plastic containers from distant towns, watching helplessly as the empty bottles piled up around their village.

“The water kept us alive, but the plastic was choking us,” Mulki says, standing beside the borehole that changed everything for her family.

Mountains of plastic

When drought soaks up natural water sources, people in this climate-vulnerable part of Somalia turn to packaged water – creating mountains of single-use plastics with little or no way to manage the waste.

Islamic Relief’s team saw this firsthand when launching the Building Resilience and Adaptation to Climate Change project in 2023. “We came to address water scarcity,” says project coordinator Abdifatah Adam. “But we quickly realised that we had to tackle 2 crises at once – both the lack of clean water and the growing plastic waste problem.”

The project drilled a new borehole, which did more than provide clean water – it broke the plastic dependency cycle. Where plastic waste once accumulated in toxic piles, the village became noticeably cleaner. And families, who once had to spend their meagre incomes on bottled water, had a little bit more money in their pockets thanks to their new sustainable water source.

A day in the new normal

Mulki’s morning routine has now transformed. At sunrise, she walks just minutes from her home to fill containers at the borehole, while her goats drink deeply from a trough nearby.

“Before, I spent 6 hours each day fetching water,” Mulki says. “Now I have time to milk the goats, sell the milk at market, and still help my children prepare for school.”

Mulki’s husband, Ahmed, tends their new vegetable garden, irrigated with borehole water, another change for the family.

These changes go beyond the family home. At the local market, plastic water bottles are becoming less common as more families gain access to safe, refillable water.  Children now play where plastic waste once littered the ground. Most remarkably, the village has begun repurposing discarded plastic bottles as planters for drought-resistant crops, a grassroots innovation born from necessity.

The bigger picture

Standing by the borehole at dusk, Mulki reflects on how much has changed, and how far there is still to go. “We have water now, but our children need schools,” she says, watching her daughters chase fireflies. “We need healthcare. Better homes.”

These aren’t just development needs – they are the next frontiers in climate resilience. Access to education empowers communities with knowledge to adapt to a changing environment. Reliable healthcare helps families withstand the physical toll of drought, disease and displacement. Safe housing protects against climate extremes. Islamic Relief is already working on solutions that integrate these priorities, recognising that resilience goes beyond water, laying the groundwork for safer and more informed communities.

But for today, in this small village where plastic bottles no longer outnumber trees, there is hope where once there was only thirst.

This World Environment Day 2024, as global attention turns to ‘Ending Plastic Pollution’, This village’s story reveals an uncomfortable truth: our plastic waste crisis often begins where basic needs go unmet. In communities like Mulki’s, plastic water bottles were a desperate solution to the deeper crisis of water scarcity.

The implications are profound. While cleanup efforts remain vital, Somalia’s experience shows that the most effective solution to plastic pollution may lie upstream – quite literally. By addressing the root causes that force communities to rely on disposable plastics, we can stop the problem at its source. Islamic Relief’s borehole project demonstrates this powerfully: where sustainable water systems exist, plastic waste reduces.

As we mark World Environment Day, perhaps our greatest opportunity lies not just in cleaning up plastic waste, but in removing the need for it altogether – one community, one water source at a time.

Mulki’s story shows what’s possible. With your help, we can turn this single borehole’s success into a wave of change. Donate today to support bringing sustainable solutions to more communities, because no mother should have to choose between her family’s survival and the planet’s health.

In the fading light of yet another flooded evening, Rupali faced an impossible but all-too-familiar choice: risk disease by using the collapsed latrine behind her home, or wait for the cover of darkness to find privacy in the open fields. For 26 years, this was the daily reality for villagers in Bhabadaha – a low-lying area in Monirampur subdistrict, near the city of Jashore. The region remains persistently waterlogged due to man-made drainage failures, earning it the name ‘the suffering of Bhabadaha’ – a phrase that captures both the physical hardship and emotional toll of living with constant flooding.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. When engineers in the 1980s built embankments and sluice gates to control seasonal floods in the area, they accidentally created a permanent inland sea. Today, over 1 million people across southwestern Bangladesh navigate life with water lapping at their thresholds. But Rupali’s story isn’t just about rising waters, it’s about inventive solutions, and how a project designed to restore human dignity became a blueprint for environmental resilience.

No respite

Before their land was flooded, Monirampur’s residents’ suffering was only temporary – when the monsoons subsided, the land dried and their latrines were above water again. But after, there was no respite.

“We stopped eating before bedtime,” Rupali says. Her husband, Ajit, says that families rationed meals to minimise bathroom trips. The alternative – using bamboo made hanging structure (Shako)   – risked disease, snake bite, danger and humiliation. Pregnant women, children and elderly people suffered most.

In trying to control nature, humans had created a disaster that stripped away basic dignities. On top of this, plastic waste from makeshift sanitation solutions choked the remaining waterways, damaging the environment.

An innovative solution to a unique problem

When Islamic Relief’s team arrived in Monirampur in 2023, they didn’t bring prefabricated solutions. Instead, they asked, “what would work here?”

The answer emerged through months of collaboration with engineers and villagers – a deceptively simple structure that defied the waters. The climate-smart latrine stood on sturdy pillars, its concrete base rising 2 feet above the highest flood line. A clever gate valve system allows waste to be safely contained when water levels are high and processed when they lower. Equally importantly, the latrine was made using local materials – no plastic sheeting.

For Rupali, the change was immediate. “The first morning I didn’t have to plan my day around finding a private place” she says. “You cannot understand what that freedom means. After 26 years of living with shame and discomfort.”

Ripple effects

What began as 80 latrines has sparked a quiet revolution. Neighbouring villages have now replicated the design, while women’s groups are training others in climate-resilient construction. While Bhabadaha’s long-standing struggle stems from waterlogging caused by failed drainage systems – not plastic pollution – the community’s journey toward adaptation has had unexpected environmental benefits.

As people regained their dignity and stability, they also began addressing other challenges – like plastic waste that once clogged their few remaining waterways. Inspired by Islamic Relief Bangladesh, some villagers have even started making adaptive latrines using recycled rubber materials, reducing reliance on plastic sheeting and demonstrating how small innovations can lead to broader environmental gains.

This World Environment Day, as the world focuses on the theme of ‘Ending Plastic Pollution’, Bhabadaha offers a profound lesson: meaningful environmental solutions must begin with human dignity. Locally led adaptation is the best way of ensuring using local knowledge and skill for problem solution. Giving access to the financial resources vulnerable women can contribute in climate induced problem solving to improve their quality of life, and they’ll seek to protect their environment too.

Your support can help Islamic Relief change the lives of people affected by climate change in Bangladesh and worldwide. Donate today.

The first time I met the young Sudanese woman she was kneeling in the dust outside her makeshift shelter in an IDP camp, her three-year-old daughter limp in her arms. The child’s breathing was shallow, her tiny ribcage pressing against skin stretched taut like parchment. Around them, the camp vibrated with the quiet despair of thousands who had fled here, not for safety, but because there was simply nowhere else to go.

“At home, we ate a half meal in a day,” she told me. “Now, no food at home”

I have worked in humanitarian crises, but what is happening in Sudan today is different. This is not just a food crisis, it is the systematic unravelling of an entire nation. As we mark World Hunger Day, over 25 million Sudanese, half the country, now face acute food insecurity. Of these, 8.5 million stand at the brink of famine. These aren’t abstract numbers.

The anatomy of a man-made crisis

Sudan’s descent into hunger is no accident of nature. It is the direct consequence of more than two years of brutal war, compounded by international indifference. In many cities, where vibrant markets once bustled with traders, food warehouses now stand bombed-out, looted, and empty. In Al Jazirah, Sudan’s former breadbasket, the armed groups burned their fields and stole their harvests at gunpoint.

The war has shattered every system that might have mitigated this crisis. Inflation has soared beyond 350%, rendering a family’s life savings worthless against the price of a single meal. Banks are non-functional in many areas in the country.  Hospitals have run out of medicines and supplies.

The children we are losing

One of the most devastating realities we are observing now, hunger is quietly taking its toll, and time is running out. The conflict continues and children are the most vulnerable and victims.  16 million children across Sudan are in urgent need of humanitarian aid, among them, 3.9 million is suffering from acute malnutrition, and they are struggling for survival. If there is no urgent action, countless children in Sudan will remain at serious risk before the year’s end.

The silence of the international community

What shocks me most is not the scale of suffering, but the world’s muted response.

While other crises dominate headlines, Sudan’s agony unfolds in the shadows. The UN’s $4.2 billion humanitarian appeal for Sudan remains less than 20% funded. While the need is very high and people are suffering from hunger, the international community is silent on raising funds for Sudan.

The truth is uncomfortable but clear: Sudan’s suffering is being measured against other crises and found wanting. Twenty-four aid workers have been killed here since the war began, more than in any other active conflict this year. Yet there are no emergency summits, no urgent UN resolutions. Just silence.

What must be done

First, we need humanitarian access.  The UN Security Council must move beyond statements and enforce the unimpeded delivery of aid. Starvation cannot be permitted as a weapon of war.

Second, the funding gap must be closed, not next year, not next month, but now. The math is stark: $1.5 billion could feed six million Sudanese for six months. To put that in perspective, it’s less than the global cosmetics industry earns in 36 hours.

Finally, we must plan for the day after. Even if peace came tomorrow, Sudan’s farms are ruined, its economy shattered. Recovery will require seeds, tools, and years of sustained investment. But first, we must ensure there are people left to recover.

A final question

On World Hunger Day, we are reminded that hunger in Sudan is not due to a natural disaster; it is due to the current conflict. The question is not whether we can stop Sudan’s starvation, but whether we will choose to.

The world knows what is happening here. The only thing left to determine is whether it cares.

Islamic Relief has been working in Sudan since 1984, providing emergency relief, healthcare, food and shelter to vulnerable communities. Despite the dangers, our teams remain committed to serving those in need.

Please support our life-saving work by donating to our International Emergency today.

 

When Sarah* fled her home in Omdurman amid the violent eruption of conflict, survival was the only goal. With just a handful of belongings and her frightened family in tow, she embarked on a harrowing escape.

“We crossed the Khartoum-Omdurman bridge on foot,” Sarah recounts. “The elderly were carried on wheelbarrows. Corpses lay swollen on the streets; the smell was unbearable. My children saw horrors that stole their innocence.”

Their initial refuge in Madani was shattered by bombs, forcing Sarah’s family to flee again, this time on donkey carts, until they found themselves in Gedaref in eastern Sudan, a place that offered no promises, only further hardship.

Daily despair

The displaced in Al-Gedaref now live a desperate reality. Housing is scarce, forcing families onto streets or overcrowded shelters.

“We have nothing but the clothes we arrived in,” Sarah shares. “Finding food and water is a daily struggle. Illness is widespread; hunger is devastating. Words can’t fully describe our suffering.”

Her eyes convey a silent plea, speaking volumes beyond her words.

A father’s anguish: “my daughter nearly died from hunger”

Anowar knows hunger intimately. His family survives on two meagre meals each day, often little more than flour porridge. The toll of malnutrition nearly claimed his daughter’s life.

“My daughter’s body swelled from hunger,” Anowar painfully recalls. “Seeing her suffer was unbearable. Thank God she’s better now, but every meal feels like a miracle we can’t always afford. Bread, lentils – simple foods feel like treasures.”

His voice is heavy with the weight of providing for a family on the edge of survival.

Anowar’s ordeal mirrors that of countless displaced families.

“In Omdurman, some days we had no food at all. My children fell sick from malnutrition when we reached here,” he reveals. “Even with help from the clinic, our struggle isn’t over. Food scarcity still haunts us. Some days, we simply do not eat.”

Anowar’s testimony is a stark reminder of the severity of Sudan’s hunger crisis. Elderly residents have died not only from starvation but from the heartbreak of losing homes they hoped to pass down through generations.

Islamic Relief support

Amid the overwhelming despair, Sarah and others have found hope through Islamic Relief’s humanitarian aid. Supplies brought relief, however temporary, to their prolonged suffering.

“Islamic Relief arrived, and we felt hope again,” Sarah shares. “I haven’t even opened the aid bag yet, but its arrival alone reassured us that we aren’t forgotten.”

For Sarah, and Anowar, aid isn’t just food – it’s recognition, compassion, and a lifeline to survival.

Picture: For Sarah* and other displaced families in Gedaref, these supplies bring relief after months of hunger and fear.

“If you have means, please help,” Sarah implores. “Even the simplest acts of kindness can save lives. We’ve survived our darkest days but cannot do this alone.”

Her plea echoes across borders, carrying a universal message: solidarity can ease suffering, compassion can heal wounds, and togetherness can save lives.

Sudan’s hunger crisis is not just a statistic, it’s a devastating human tragedy that demands immediate global action.

Islamic Relief remains committed to aiding Sudan’s displaced families. On World Hunger Day, your support can turn despair into hope. Stand with us and help save lives today.