From Crisis to Choice: The Power of Cash Assistance in Borena
Published: Apr 27, 2026 Reading time: 3 minutes Share: Share an articleIn the Ethiopia’s Borena zone, stability was shattered by tribal conflicts that forced families to flee their villages, leaving behind their homes, livestock, and all household property. To help families overcome the challenges of displacement, we provided them with cash assistance, so that they could meet their needs.
Today, a new approach to humanitarian aid direct cash assistance is helping people regain their dignity and meet their needs on their own terms. Funded by the European Commission through the ECC project, this programme is specifically designed to support internally displaced persons (IDPs), pregnant women, the elderly, and large households who have lost their livelihoods.
The challenges of displacement are frequently compounded by severe health risks and often a total lack of resources. Dabboo recalls the desperation of being hospitalised with severe anaemia while lacking even the smallest amount of money:
This lack of resources extends to the most basic household items, as many fled with only the clothes on their backs and without simple things like containers to fetch water.
Before aid arrived, the primary concern for parents was a lack of food for their children and the hunger this caused.
The ECC project operates on the principle that the people best-equipped to prioritise a person’s needs is the person themselves. Daniel Yeshibelay, the project manager, notes that cash "empowers communities to make decisions regarding their priority needs". For Dabboo, this means ensuring her infants have what they need first:
Other families use the funds to buy staples such as maize, cooking oil, salt, potatoes, and onions, while also ensuring their children have the notebooks and clothes necessary for school.
This assistance supports long-term recovery and self-sufficiency. Before the conflict, these community members sustained themselves through agricultural labour, including ploughing fields and selling charcoal or wood in local towns. Sora highlights this enduring hope for the future:
The transition away from constant anxiety has brought a profound sense of relief to the district. As one recipient shared, the joy of being able to provide is shared by the entire household:
With the ability to buy grain and prepare food in their own cooking pots, these families are finally finding a sense of stability.