A former child refugee from Somalia has been named as this year’s winner of the prestigious UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award. Abdullahi Mire, 36, was recognized for bringing 100,000 books to his compatriots languishing in sprawling camps in Kenya. “Last year, 2022, Angela Merkel, the former Federal Chancellor of Germany, won the award and today a […]
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Over 10,000 Somali adolescent girls and young women graduated from an 11-month non-formal education course aimed at enhancing literacy, numeracy, and life leadership skills on Wednesday in Mogadishu, Somalia. The 10,616 graduates include girls living with disabilities who have emerged as influential role models and ambassadors, championing school enrollment and active participation within their communities and among […]
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Farah was 12 years old before she stepped into a classroom as a student. Farah’s family had not been able to afford the fees to send her and her older brothers to school. Her mother learned about Bar ama Baro’s free accelerated basic education program and eagerly went to their local school in Mogadishu to […]
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Most people living in advanced economies take literacy, the ability to read and write, for granted. But this skill is not a given in many developing countries, including in Somaliland, in the Horn of Africa. This is a country struggling under the weight of multiple challenges such as drought, hunger and poverty, reports Voice of […]
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Recurring droughts have devastated communities in Somaliland and has, in particular, deeply affected children’s access to education. The state of Somaliland has seen five consecutive failed rainy seasons. By the start of 2022, over 800,000 people were grappling with acute food and water scarcity, forcing many families to migrate in search of resources. The drought […]
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Hodan Artan is patching up the roof of her home, sewing together pieces of fabric of different colours with blue string. She works as a cleaner in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa. With the little money she earns, a mud hut with a cloth roof flapping in the wind is all the 23-year-old single mother can afford […]
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As a part of its Ramadan campaign, the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation announced that it is opening new education opportunities for the most marginalised out-of-school children in Somalia through the ‘Educate your children II’ project.The project is a three-year initiative being implemented across 17 districts within the five Somalia regional states of Galmudug, Hirshabelle, […]
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For most of 17-year-old Katra’s* life, school has been a distant dream. Born with a physical disability that impacted her legs, Katra wasn’t allowed to leave her family home in Burao, Somaliland because of the stigma around disability in her community. That meant no trips to the market, no visits with friends – and certainly […]
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A new school for disabled children in Qardo, north-eastern Somaliais providing a stable and well equipped learning environment for 180 boys and girls. Gaheyr School, built by the UN’s children’s agency UNICEF, was handed over las month to the founder and director, Abdi Ali Adan, who has been teaching disabled children since 2004, and has […]
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Five new schools opened by the Jubbaland state authorities in villages around the southern Somali town of Kismayo have enabled hundreds of children to begin education for the first time in their lives. Shukri Ibrahim enrolled six of her nine children, including four girls, in Instabul school, 25 kilometres from Kismayo, that opened on 6 […]
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