Education in Somaliland
Somaliland
Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1993 after a secessionist struggle in which tens of thousands of people were killed. Somaliland now enjoys relative security, but still awaits international recognition.
Somaliland now has a functioning political system, government institutions, a police force and a thriving business sector. Even so, poverty and unemployment are widespread and the economy is highly dependent on money sent home by members of the diaspora.
ActionAid in Somaliland
ActionAid began working with refugees fleeing from the Ethiopia-Somali war in 1980. More than 500,000 people died in the war, over a million people were displaced, and the disaster was compounded by severe famine. In 1991, war and political instability forced us to suspend our work. In 1992 ActionAid resumed work in the Sanaag and Togdheer regions of Somaliland.
ActionAid Somaliland supports the basic needs and rights of poor people, particularly those affected by war and political instability. We work closely with community-based organisations, using very few staff and the minimum of equipment. We work closely with the traditional clan chiefs and village committees, providing information and training to help them design and manage their own water, education, environmental care and animal health projects
Asha Mohammed, 35, attended a training seminar on basic healthcare run by ActionAid Somalia. She says...“The information we learnt was very helpful. After completing the course, I organised a meeting for all the villagers to raise their awareness on hygiene and sanitation and the importance of contacting medical people for help. Since then, incidences of respiratory problems, diarrhoea and dysentery have reduced. I am looking forward to more training to improve my ability to serve my people.”
Re-establishing traditional authority
Conflict breaks up communities and often destroys the social institutions that bind societies together. ActionAid is working to reconcile communities through traditional authority.
Guurti - the council of elders in Somaliland
Somali lifestyle is characterised by pastoral herding of sheep and goats and strong social alliances based on clanship. The central government of Somalia collapsed in 1991, leading to civil war and violent conflict between clans, resulting in the formation of many 'independent republics', one of which is Somaliland, where ActionAid works. Since the collapse of a central administration, traditional authority systems have proved to be the most trusted, effective and acceptable system for local governance, through which disputes have been settled and peace reinstated. As part of the Erigavo peace talks in 1993, elders from the Sanaag region agreed to return lands and property seized during the conflict.
After much negotiation, in November 1995 the Sultan of the Habr Yonis (of the Isaaq clan family) formally handed back ownership titles of 300 assets ranging from buildings, farms and water reservoirs originally belonging to the Dhulbahante clan. ActionAid facilitated and supported these negotiations by paying travel expenses and assisting in documenting decisions. The elders of the clans constructed maps and ActionAid provided scale maps onto which this local information was transferred, providing an accurate record of lands and their changing ownership.
Traditional authority and conflict resolution
* Institutions that have traditionally been responsible for settling disputes, reconciling neighbours and overseeing conventions and contracts within communities are often eroded, corrupted and even destroyed. The rebuilding of these institutions can be key to resolving local conflicts.
* ActionAid has been working with traditional institutions examining ways to build peace and reconciliation among communities in ongoing conflict.
* A return to the old-style structures of authority is not always possible or desirable.
* Nevertheless, their presence is an important step in rebuilding communities and reinforcing values for peace and understanding that overrides social and sometimes ethnic differences.
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/666/somaliland.html
fighting poverty together
priority projects htt://www.actionaid.org.uk
Training teachers for a better education in Somaliland
The Republic of Somaliland was formed after its separation from Somalia in 1991. The civil war between 1988 and 1991 in Somalia had caused chaos, with nearly 60,000 people dead, massive population displacement and the destruction of communication and public services. The people
of Somaliland have since made considerable progress and now have a stable administration.
However, Somaliland is still desperately poor and the majority of Somali people are pastoral nomads – a lifestyle based on raising sheep, goats, camels and some cattle for subsistence and trade. However, public services have not been well-established in rural areas and so
many pastoral nomadic communities lack basic amenities such as healthcare and education.
Most efforts to re-establish education in the country have been concentrated in the urban areas leaving nomadic children with few, if any, opportunities.
Introduction
Stuart Freedman/Network/ActionAid UK
Education is one of the best solutions to poverty there is, and yet 113 million children worldwide have no access to primary education at all. Primary school is a luxury for poor families and secondary school becomes an impossibility. ActionAid’s diverse education programme covers all aspects of sustainable improvements. We develop educational practices relevant to poor communities. We pressure local and national governments to make education available. We pressure international bodies to play their part in easing that task.
The problems
* Existing schools are inaccessible in terms of time as they are often open when the children are required at home to tend livestock, fetch water or carry out other chores. Schools are also an average of four to twenty kilometres away from community settlements, which is a major
deterrent as many children are too young to travel such distances unaccompanied.
* Parents often do not see education as having any direct benefits to the family income. Even when parents do decide to send some of their children to schools in town, they are careful to send boys, not girls. It is believed that girls will only benefit their husband’s clan, whereas boys stay with their own.
* The continual movement of the nomadic pastoral lifestyle makes it very difficult for children to stay in one place for more than a few months at a time and so their education is abandoned each
time their families move on.
Unit costs
* 30 pence could buy an exercise book for one child.
* £4.50 could buy one learning kit including books, pens and a small bag.
* £30 could buy a blackboard for a classroom.
* £320 could train one teacher in effective and appropriate teaching methods (including accommodation at the training sessions).
60% of the donations will go towards the projects and 40% will be distributed internationally in order of greatest need.
ActionAid, Hamlyn House, Macdonald Road, Archway, London N19 5PG Email: cfd@actionaid.org Te: 020 7561 7561. ActionAid is a registered charity, no. 274467.
ActionAid’s response
* Working with local communities, ActionAid will develop appropriate alternatives to the traditional schooling systems and set up a rural education system managed by the communities themselves.
* Four senior trainers/educators will be identified and recruited to help develop the system and ensure it is in line with government policies for education.
* Thirty rural teachers will be selected and trained to teach a wider and more appropriate curriculum. This will result in a further 1,400 children learning to read, write and do arithmetic as well as other skills relevant to the nomadic lifestyle.
real lives
Zaynab Diriyeh is a mother of seven children living near Nasiyeh village in the Togdheer region of Somaliland. Zaynab says; We understand that education is good for the future of our children but there are no modern education opportunities in our locality. Therefore, we are obliged to engage our children in household chores and livestock tending. We are happy to send children to educational opportunities; we also need education for the adults. I am personally ready to attend the night shift if the option is there. Two years ago we lived near a village where there was a two room school in which we wanted to enrol our children, but the problem was that the school operated only in the morning and some of the children had to tend the livestock at that time.
Stuart Freedman/Network/ActionAid UK
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/_content/documents/SOMALILAND.pdf
1. DFID – Proposal for the development of human resources in Somaliland
This proposal was developed by a consortium of RCOGIO, THET-KCH, SC-UK and Health Unlimited and includes support to EOC training in Somaliland. The proposal is designed to link with other Health Systems and Reproductive Health initiatives funded by international donors particularly UNICEF and WHO.
In June 2007 approval was received from DFID for 2 years funding. The Grant awarded runs from June 1 st 2007 and has enabled the start-up activities to commence from June 1st. In the programme's 3-month inception phase the following activities have been undertaken and/or planned with Consortium partners and the Ministry of Health and Labour (MOHL) in Somaliland:
- Work planning with the MOHL and partners on all aspects of the programme; this collaboration will be built on during programme management meetings in Nairobi in September.
- Development of work plans for HR training including LSS-EOC training; Development of liaison and collaboration on LSS and EOC with the MOHL Reproductive Health Department and external partners, UNICEF and UNFPA that could see further funding from these agencies for EOC in Somaliland and better targeting of financial and material resources with RCOGIO providing a lead to all these agencies;
- Development of liaison and collaboration with EC-UNICEF Lot 3 Programme for Health Systems Strengthening in the Somali Republic with an initial focus on Somaliland. An EC workshop will be held in Nairobi Sept. 5 th -7 th to further develop and harmonize health sector programmes for the Somali peoples and the consortium will be represented at that workshop. Programme Management start-up including appointment of the LATH Kenya Country Manager who will spend 50% of her time on support to programme management.
A workshop to develop further the monitoring and evaluation component of the LSS-EOC course was held at LSTM on the 21 st of August 2007. The new format will be used to monitor and evaluate LSS-EOC courses to be delivered in Somaliland under the DFID Somaliland Human resources development program from October 2007 to March 2009. The RCOGIO will deliver a total of five courses over this period, this will involve training of 20 local faculty members and about 150 health care workers.
2. EC - Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Majoodi Jeex, Somaliland
This EC Grant Application has been led by Health Unlimited (HU) in January 2007 and is aimed at improving the SRH Rights of internally displaced people in Somaliland and particularly to address gender-based violence.
This bid has been won, however, up to late-August Health Unlimited were still following up the contract award with the EC hence no activities have yet been commenced.
October 2007
http://www.rcog.org.uk/index.asp * PageID=1491
Somaliland Association for Special Education, Hargeisa
Background
In Somaliland it has been a traditional and accepted belief that children with disabilities are useless. The children have often been labeled with bad names like "fools, idiots, morons, and na’as", and are treated as someone with less value than the "normal" children. Especially mentally handicapped children and adults are considered of many to have no rights to basic things like freedom, learning, work opportunities and decision making.
Many children in Somaliland with mentally handicaps are hidden inside the houses, or even chained, because of the traditional beliefs that say that handicap is a punishment and something to be ashamed of. Parents will hide or tie their children because they don't see any other options for the child, and they don't know what else to do. Some parents have even separated because of their disabled child trying to escape the public condemnation.
Somali Association for Special Education - SASE, is running Hargeisa School for Special Needs Education. This school is addressing the needs of the mentally handicapped children, and has since 2001 been offering special needs education for these children in Hargeisa through a day care school programme that rehabilitates and gives the children individual educational training.
Many of these children, who had no opportunity to learn before, have now changed into happier and socially interactive individuals, and their parents have through awareness learned, that there is a future for their children.
Today the public attitude towards the mentally handicapped children, their right to exist and to learn have started to change, but there is still a long way to go to change the general public attitude towards the mental handicaps and other disabilities in the country. SASE is having a big task ahead of them, advocating for the rights and potential of these children and promoting special needs education in Somaliland.
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http://www.sase-sl.org/en/index.asp http://www.uhubso.com/ http://www.progressio.co.uk/ 17 Dec 2007http://www.progressio.co.uk/progressio/internal/95611/hiv_and_aids_education_for_the_youth_of_berbera__s/ http://countrystudies.us/somalia/ ).http://countrystudies.us/somalia/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somaliland http://www.usaid.gov/regions/afr/success_stories/somalia.html http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people/highlights/010430_somaliland.shtml http://www.agsp-aed.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=69 http://www.iolhivaids.co.za/index.php * fArticleId=3226354. Independent Online on Tuesday examined efforts in Somaliland, a self-proclaimed republic in northwest Somalia, to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS. HIV prevalence in Somaliland is 1.4%, but health authorities warn that a lack of information about the virus, as well as cultural and religious beliefs, could contribute to an increase in HIV prevalence. According to Deq Saeed of http://www.unaids.org/en/default.asp.UNAIDSSomaliland , HIV prevalence "has increased tremendously over the past four years, but still a majority of the population [is] not serious about [the virus'] consequences." In addition, misconceptions about HIV/AIDS are widespread, and some local people believe that the virus cannot be found in Somaliland, the Independent Onlinereports. Stigma and discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS also are hampering efforts to control the spread of the virus in the region. Some health experts say that some people have been assaulted by relatives for being HIV-positive. Somaliland in 2005 established a commission to plan and coordinate efforts to combat HIV/AIDS, and antiretroviral drugs provided by the http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/home . United Nations High Commission on Refugeesare distributed to HIV-positive residents at no cost, which has encouraged people to seek counseling and testing services, according to the Independent Online.http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/42746.php http://www.somalidevelopmentprogramme.org/school.shtml http://gavosom.org/ http://abc4all.net/ education for 22 IDP youth was offered by Honorable Hassan Awale Ainan who is member of Somaliland Parliament as well as Owner of 17 May secondary School in Hargeisa he announced that every year there will be 22. Free admission for the state house returnee Solvoy and the local ABC4ALL mentoring team decided that many can be done for the state house and like minded returnee in Somaliland particularly Hargeisa region.http://events.takingitglobal.org/15511 http://www.ias.nu/ http://info.worldbank.org/etools/library/latestversion.asp?241474 .http://www.iiz-dvv.de/englisch/Publikationen/Weltbank/inhalt.htm 
In Somaliland it has been a traditional and accepted belief that children with disabilities are useless. The children have often been labeled with bad names like "fools, idiots, morons, and na’as", and are treated as someone with less value than the "normal" children. Especially mentally handicapped children and adults are considered of many to have no rights to basic things like freedom, learning, work opportunities and decision making.