Note this recent news out of sub-Saharan Africa:
“Somalia’s children schooled in guns”
- By Tom Odula – Associated Press
- Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Adan Abdi, a school teacher in Dhobley, “worries that the students in his class show too little interest in education. His students are interested in playing war.”
UNICEF reports, “An entire generation of children has grown up knowing only conflict and fighting…and possibly thousands of children have been trained in combat”. Sikander Khan, the top official in Somalia says, “There is an increased need to invest more in Somalia’s youth…in order to give long-term peace a chance to prevail”.
Khan also notes, “We need to make sure that this generation receives quality basic education, access to social services and protection from violence and abuse. This will stop them being sucked into the continuing violence and they will then be able to make a positive and lasting contribution to the future of Somalia.”
The full story: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/mar/14/somalias-children-schooled-in-guns
“Somali and American Fund for Education (SAFE)” – program
“We receive annual requests for school construction projects from schools throughout Somalia. We use rigorous selection criteria including community vetting process to select schools to support. We support schools that have a large community participation component with local communities greatly vested. We require each school to fund-raise one-third of the construction cost from their local and Somali Diaspora communities. Through our local university partners, we implement the SAFE Certification Program which certifies selected schools for accountability and helps build their capacity to effectively implement SAFE funds. Our partners also conduct frequent site visits to schools and submit progress reports to closely monitor construction projects…”
The full story: http://www.safeeducation.org
Building Schools in Somalia
My interest was ignited by an email from a student at City College of New York, following a speech I gave at the Colin Powell Center for Policy Studies, on October 20, 2011:
“Dear Ambassador Price: My name is Hannah Wolf, we met at the City College of New York on Thursday, thank you for coming to visit with us and thank you for providing me with your contact information. It was a pleasure meeting you and listening to your lecture. As I mentioned, I am currently working with a non-profit organization called Somali and American Fund for Education (SAFE) that works on building and improving schools in Somalia. The organization is a 100% volunteer run organization by Somalis and Americans concerned about the future of Somalia.”
Hannah introduced me to Hodan Guled, the Founder and Managing Director of the “Somali and American Fund for Education” (SAFE). Hodan is very impressive and well informed on the need for classroom facilities in Somalia. After a presentation, the Price Family Foundation agreed to build classrooms at two schools located near Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland. We believe it is important to help the Somali children find a way forward through secular education. These young students will be the future leaders of Somalia! I had expressed security concerns building in some areas of the country. So we focused on Somaliland, the autonomous state in the northwest region of Somalia.
On April 2nd, 2012, I received an update from Hodan on the two school projects that were planned. She included photos of the existing classrooms, which tell a compelling story of the need for the new buildings.
“Dear Ambassador Price: I hope all is well with you and your family. We have been busy with the school certifications and I wanted to give you a quick update on the schools we selected for your funding. We are close to certifying the 2 schools; they are both within 35-50 km outside of Hargeisa; and you will be able to visit this summer when the construction is completed. They both have strong community support. Our staff visited the schools; attached are 2 pictures, one of each school. As you can see, the need for additional classrooms is tremendous and very much needed in these schools."