HISTORY OF THE YUBBE COMMUNITY, LAND & CLIMATE

Just as Somalia is called "a nation of nomads", the Yubbe Community too were nomads. They did not live in one place but travelled across the plains, staying in each place for only a few weeks or a few months before they moved on. As water is Somalia's scarcest resource, the people had to travel many miles to find food and water for their sheep, goats, cattle and camels.

The Yubbe community started its first permanent settlement in 1969 when its founder, the late Mohammad Hassan "Isdeldel" dug a well 60 Km east of Erigavo, the Capital of the Sanaag Region. The well which has a depth of 100 feet, provides drinking water to the village through two troughs which are fed by a water tank 100 feet from the well. As soon as water was available, families began to build new houses and so a permanent settlement was established. This was the birth of the Yubbe Village which today is home to about 5000 families.

Somalia is a hot, dry and hard land which receives a small and unreliable annual rainfall to support the few areas of grassland and scattered acacia trees. So like most Somalis, the Yubbe Community members are very poor and have a low standard of living and struggle to exist on a day-by-day basis. The only water available is through two community wells.