Alongside the activities of food distribution, the Secretary of State for National Solidarity, Zahra Youssouf Kayad , granted last Thursday in an interview with The Nation , interview in which she tells us more about the different missions of the department at this time welding which this year coincides with Ramadan.

La Nation: Madam Secretary of State, which are generally the major activities undertaken by the government through the NSIS to fight against poverty and food insecurity in our country?

Zahra Youssouf Kayad : As you may have noticed lately , we undertook emergency measures to help those affected by the drought and all those affected by the lack of income in this lean period corresponding populations this year in the month of Ramadan. These key measures include an agreement between the NSIS and WFP to help families during the summer 6500 , as well as regular food distributions allocated through coupons that are every two weeks points precise distribution . There are also food distributions in the outskirts of Balbala and in the capital and in the five regions . The program started two weeks ago . These people we distribute these foods are identified and listed . The goal of NSIS is to help vulnerable people when they need it most. There is not an assistantship but rather to help in this blessed month of Ramadan to allow them to spend this month in peace.

La Nation: It was mentioned repeatedly in the establishment of a ” Single File “. What is it exactly?

The single register of vulnerable beneficiaries is primarily a desire of the head of state, which once operational will allow our country to be among the few African countries to dispose of . It is a long process that we started last year and today we have been able to recruit international experts who will help the NSIS with national experts to develop the record through the establishment of a computer program to be able to go in Balbala and Djibouti city to deliver a sweep and this time biometric identity cards to vulnerable populations. The single file will help the social assistance program because today this program suffers from a lack of focus, because we do not know enough about the people we serve. This file will allow us to more easily reach the people who need our support and our help. It is a work that we hope to finalize the first quarter of 2014 to the persons holding the welfare card to benefit from social services such as Medicare , aid to education but also to other social assistance programs that our ministry will put in place very soon .

La Nation: The fight against poverty is not just a food distribution and food stamps, but many other factors such as education , health care must also be taken into account. What other programs in place to fight against poverty in our country?

Let me first of all say to my fellow citizens that food assistance programs are not permanent systems , it is not something that the government wants to perpetuate because we want our people who are able to work can themselves undertake income-generating activities . However , recurrent droughts , the vulnerability of our nomadic and peri-urban populations during the summer months and Ramadan are that we are required to provide them with emergency food programs and what are the distributions of food and coupons food . Once we get out of these emergencies , we will begin much more productive programs. ADDS is an executive agency of projects against poverty already undertaken programs to reduce poverty in Djibouti and we will strengthen these programs by the implementation of a wide range of work -intensive labor as the size of stones , paving, street cleaning , in order to create jobs and fight daily against underemployment . Besides these projects , you have programs ” cash for work ” or ” Food For Work “, aiming at rehabilitation of community infrastructure and in return , it gives people who have participated in either food or cash . So all of these programs are part of the national strategy for social safety nets that the government has validated and which for the most intensive activities of labor producing work, but there are all vulnerable groups , such as people disabled people