Children of Somalia see their history painted with memories of conflict.
As many areas are not secure, 1,133,000 people have been forced to flee their homes to live in safer parts of Somalia. Additionally, 1,105,618 have fled the country.
For the children, the long lasting war and instability in the country is not only affecting their daily life, but also their future.
“Education is a right, it saves lives, education is the key to rebuilding a peaceful and prosperous Somalia,” says Abiti T. Gebretsadik, who is NRC’s Education CC Specialist Somalia.
Vulnerable and instability
By 2013, school enrolment rate in Somalia was one of the lowest in the world, according to UNICEF. Only four in ten children attended school, and one third of these were girls.
Without education children in Somalia stand vulnerable when facing risks and challenges in an unstable society.
“Like other fragile states, with limited access to formal education, children in Somalia face illiteracy,” Gebretsadik says, and continues: “Poverty, direct physical violence, gender based violence and lack of positive interactions with adults, can lead vulnerable children into conflict-related violence, like criminality. Without education, many stay unemployed, depending on other sources to survive. They lose their future perspective,” he says.
Creating new trends
For some children living in Baidoa town and a camp for internal displaced people (IDP) outside the town the situation is changing.
“I was traveling in the city of Baidoa and the IDP camp to document the shelter constructions when I got a chance to visit two schools, Dr. Ayub school in Baidoa and Salama Idale school in the IDP camp,” says Timothy T. Mutunga, Shelter Programme Manager for the Horn of Africa Region.
“For a number of years prior to 2012, school going girls in Baidoa and surrounding areas faced extreme obstacles to accessing education opportunities while women, despite skills, were restricted to working only at home. Today, there is a high level of girls attending the school in Baidoa where head teacher is also a woman,” Mutunga says.
The construction of both the IDP camp and the Salama Idale school was supported by the NRC. And the children were given blue and white uniforms.
The children attending both Dr. Ayub school in Baidoa and Salama Idale school, will change the future in Somalia for the better.
“Unemployment is one of the biggest threats to peace and stability in Somalia” says Gebretsadik
In 2013, UNICEF started a project called “Go-To-School” (G2S). Their goal was to provide education for 1 million children. Sharing goals with NRC, the organisations provided children in Somalia with education by programs like those at Dr. Ayub school in Baidoa and Salama Idale school in the IDP camp.
“One million children initiative is NRC’s ambitious goal to reach one million out of school children. This goal is meant to be achieved from 2015-2017,” says Gebretsadik.
The initiative has been highly positive for the area.
“With the G2S project so far 450,000 children and youth have been reached in South Central regions of Puntland and Somaliland, in Somalia,” says Gebretsadik.
