NAIROBI, 27 April 2010 (IRIN) - Halima is a mother of five living in the village of Raqayle. Her jobless husband Hassan spends more hours in the `qat’ parlour with his friends than looking for ways to feed the family. So, saddled with debts, and burdened initially by her own lack of confidence, Halima launched a small business venture delivering cooked food to people’s homes and workplaces.

You will not find Raqayle on the Somali map, for this is fiction. But it is close enough to the reality for many Somali radio listeners to find something of themselves in the main characters of the new IRIN drama series, No One Earns Without Effort.

Halima, as you might have guessed, turns out to be an inspirational figure, whose business in the end reaps rewards, though not until she has struggled to overcome numerous hurdles and looked failure in the face. She manages to pay for her children to go to school and even moves into a better house. She shows how creative use of simple skills, plus a large dose of hard work, can turn into profit for you and your family.

Written and enacted by some of the best Somali drama talent around, the 10-episode series is an IRIN collaboration with UN Development Programme-Somalia, which supports job creation particularly in south-central Somalia through its Employment Generation for Early Recovery programme.

No One Earns Without Effort went on air on IRIN Radio’s Somali service on Monday 26 April 2010.  It will air every Monday with repeats on Fridays. IRIN’s Somali radio service broadcasts direct to Somalia every day on shortwave at 1130-1230 local time and is rebroadcast on some local FM stations. Downloadable MP3 audio files of the daily programmes in Somali and information on how to subscribe to our Somali podcast are available here.