For more than twenty years, Fozia Mohamed has called Bulla 2 in Baraki location, Dadaab, Kenya home. A mother of six and wife of Mzee Mohamed Sheikh, Fozia is a pastoralist who spent much of her life balancing household responsibilities with the daily struggle of securing water for her family. Every morning, she would travel nearly two kilometres to the Baraki water point, using a donkey cart to transport water back home. The journey was long and exhausting — due to high demand at the water source, she often spent over three hours waiting and collecting. During the dry season, when livestock remained closer to home and queues grew even longer, the burden only deepened.
The daily reality for Fozia was one of relentless physical effort and lost time. The two-kilometre walk, the long hours at the water point, the strain of managing a household of eight on the other side of exhaustion — all of it chipped away at what was possible. Cooking a midday meal for her children was out of reach. Planning for the future felt like a luxury. She remained active in community affairs, serving on the local water committee, and together with her neighbours formally requested support from the County Department of Water — but relief was slow to come. During Ramadan, the burden intensified further.
