Catholic Entity Facilitating Education Opportunities to Thousands of Learners in Somalia

Trócaire’s main focus is to ensure that the schools have “the basic essential teaching and learning materials in accordance with the Somali curriculum in order to enable the children to study well for their future,” officials of the Catholic charity say.

In an effort to foster formal education in Somalia, Trócaire personnel is “engaging the community through awareness and mobilization activities designed to encourage families and communities to send their girls and boys to school.”

“Trócaire has recruited and trained community facilitators who now mobilize communities and raise awareness about the value of education to encourage parents to enroll their children in school,” officials of the Irish Catholic charity say, adding that “every student’s enrolment or re-enrolment is celebrated.”

They underline “safe environment” as paramount to ensuring that the attendance of the children is boosted especially in the country’s Gedo region where they say “instability is high”.

“In order to encourage attendance, it is absolutely essential that protection and safeguarding is of the highest priority so that the children are provided with a safe environment, particularly in places like the Gedo region where instability is high,” Trócaire officials say.

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In their contribution towards ensuring a safe environment, officials of the Catholic entity say they have incorporated in the education program protection mechanisms.

They say, “This protection and safeguarding work includes child protection and psycho-social support (PSS) training for all teachers and community education committees.”

In the July 27 report, other protection mechanisms are highlighted, including “the establishment of girls’ clubs in all funded schools; the introduction of mechanisms for reporting occurrences of abuse and referral paths for protection services; and ensuring schools are safe for children through regular safety assessments.”

The leadership of Trócaire highlights Caritas France, Kindermissionswerk, Misereor, Irish Aid and the public in Ireland as key partners in ensuring that the “children are now able to learn in a secure environment and can look forward to building a brighter future.”

The leadership of Trócaire links the ongoing drought situation to the plight of children that has resulted in massive school dropouts.

“Over 86% of Somalia’s population depends on agriculture and animal herding for a living and the drought and other pressures, such as conflict and the economic impact of COVID-19, have led to huge vulnerabilities amongst the population,” Trócaire officials say.

“An estimated 3 million children are thought to have dropped out of school to help support their families,” they say, adding that boys help their fathers to sell water in IDP camps while girls help their mothers at home.

“This is extremely worrying as Somalia already had a very low proportion of children attending school, with only 24% percent of children accessing formal education,” the officials say.

They explain, “This low percentage is linked to a lack of safe schools, an insufficient number of trained teachers, inadequate government support and the fact that drought and conflict are driving thousands of people to leave their homes.”

In the July 27 report, Trócaire officials regret the fact that many teachers have abandoned their jobs due to security in their employment and also due to lack of resources and incentives.

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They highlight Kowsar Mohamed Abukar and Sadaq Osman Hussein as being “among the fortunate few” beneficiaries of the Trócaire education initiative in Somalia and that they aspire to be a pilot and civil engineer respectively.

“Kowsar and Sadaq are among the fortunate few to have the option to attend school, as opposed to children from IDP camps, whose families view education as a competing priority with addressing their basic needs like food and water,” Trócaire officials say in the July 27 report.

Silas Mwale Isenjia is a Kenyan journalist with a great zeal and interest for Catholic Church related communication. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communication from Moi University in Kenya. Silas has vast experience in the Media production industry. He currently works as a Journalist for ACI Africa.