Article
Temporary Learning Centre in Dhusamareeb provides a haven for displaced children
Dhusamareeb, 6 May 2024:, In Somalia, one of the most common traumatic events for children is displacement. Being torn from their homes, friends, and lives can leave deep emotional scars that are difficult to heal. The traumatic events they have been exposed to leave invisible scars that can prevent children from ...
Article
A School Submerged in Nature’s Wrath
Baidoa, 14th December 2023:, In Bodan camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Baidoa, Somalia, there once stood a temporary learning centre where young minds flourished, dreams were nurtured, and friendships were forged. The school was a symbol of hope and knowledge until one fateful day when disaster stru...
Article
Building Bridges of Knowledge among children displaced by climate change
In Somalia, where drought and displacement has become a harsh reality for many, there lives a young boy named Abdullahi Mohamed. Abdullahi was just eight years old when his family decided to flee their home on the outskirts of Baidoa due to a prolonged drought that had ravaged their small village and wiped out all...
Article
Building dreams, one lesson at a time
After a one-hour drive on the rugged terrains of Southern Somalia, we reach an IDP camp on the outskirts of Dollow town. The orange plastic sheets and the sticks that make up the makeshift shelters in the area can be seen from a distance. In between the shelters, there is a temporary learning center that stands ou...
Article
Meet the young teacher changing lives of displaced children
In the Southern Somalia district of Dollow, near the border with Ethiopia and Kenya, a crowded classroom is alive with laughter, conversations, and chuckles. The teacher, Sureer Farah, is engaging children, of which many are internally displaced people (IDPs) that reside in Kahary IDP Camp. She is teaching them to...
Article
Temporary Learning Space Provides Hope for Displaced Children in Baidoa
Every morning 11-year-old Adan Maalin leaves the makeshift shelter he stays in with his mother and four siblings in Baidoa, to make his way to Deebwin internally displaced persons (IDP) school, which is a temporary learning space in the camp where he is enrolled. At school is where Adan feels at home, feels safe a...
Article
Alternative basic education programme rekindles learning opportunities
In the Hiran region of Southern Somalia, conflict makes it difficult for people to access enough food. This, coupled with a severe drought, has made life extremely difficult for many families. Nasro Cali Ibrahim, a 9-year-old girl, is one such individual affected by these harsh conditions in Beletweyne. She and he...
Article
Education brings on feelings of normalcy and hope
Three years ago, Kowsar Warsame used to live with her father and four siblings in a small village outside of Belethawa town, Somalia, where they had a herd of livestock. However, the prolonged drought in Somalia devastated the family farm, and they had to leave their home to find food and water. Her mother passed ...
Article
School enrollment increasing in rural Somaliland
Somaliland - Twelve-year-old Rahma Abdirashid is among, more than one hundred students enrolled under the Education Cannot Wait programme at the Qoryaley primary school, in rural Togdheer. Like most of the students supported by the programme, she remained at home to support her parents with domestic chores like co...
Article
Children access education for the first time in their lives at UNICEF supported schools in Somalia
Baidoa, Somalia:, The chorus of young voices rises in cadence, a sweet melody of six dozen children, singing the letters of the Somali alphabet – that they just mastered one week ago. Standing before the blackboard and leading this rustic symphony at the Mustaqbal Integrated Primary School is a shy 10-year-old gi...
Photo essay
UNICEF provides package of education services for children displaced by drought
Across the Horn of Africa, the ongoing drought has had devastating consequences for millions of people in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia. In Central and South-West Somalia, already battered by recurrent droughts and the conflict which has lasted for over three decades, more than a million people have been displaced b...
Press release
USAID Contributes $1.5 Million to UNICEF to Respond to the Impact of the Drought on Somali Children’s Education
11 September 2022, MOGADISHU –, USAID/Somalia Mission Director Jeffrey N. Bakken and UNICEF Somalia Country Representative Wafaa Saeed signed an agreement for a USAID contribution of US$1.5 million to UNICEF towards an Emergency Education Drought Response Programme that responds to the impact of the drought on th...