MOGADISHU, Somalia –Sudd Khalif, 16, was among 35 students in a classroom competing recently to answer a teacher’s question in a packed classroom at the Yemen Community School here.He needed to study hard because he intended to become a doctor someday, he said.
“I want to achieve my dream from Somalia,” said Khalif. “I had given up in life. But I thank God that everything is going well now. I’m now lucky to access education like other people.”
Khalif fled Yemen’s civil war in his country two years ago, postponing his dream of studying medicine.
Now he’s among 5,800 Yemen refugees who are trying to make a new life in Somalia – an irony given how Somalis in the past have often fled to Yemen to escape violence in their country.
But with the help of the United Nations and international humanitarian groups, Khalif and thousands of other Yemen youths are receiving a basic education, often for the first time.
Civil war has engulfed Yemen since March 2015, killing more than 5,000 people.The conflict between forces loyal to the internationally-recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, a Sunni, and those allied to the Shiite Muslim Houthi rebel movement has become a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The UN has warned of cholera, famine and a host of other issues as the civil war has raged.
“The conflict in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world – a crisis which has engulfed the entire country,” said UN statement released in late December. “Yemen has passed the tipping point into a rapid decline from crisis to deepening catastrophe.”
The toll has been high on Somalia.
Around 34,000 Somali refugees in Yemeni have returned home since the war began, according to the UN. The weak government of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has struggled to accommodate them while also fighting al-Shabaab extremists linked to Al Qaeda as well as a devastating drought.
The Yemen Community School has more than 229 boys and 191 girls from Yemen aged between 5 and 17 years old. Since its construction in 1978, various militias that have controlled either Somalia or Mogadishu have run the school. Some used the building as their headquarters during the civil war.
The school became a reception center for new refugee arrivals from Yemen and a distribution center for refugees and returnees. With the support of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Action Africa Help International, a regional NGO, rehabilitated the school with the goal of helping exclusively Yemen students.
More than one third of the world’s refugee children are missing out on education, according to UNICEF. In Somalia, tackling that problem is hard. The East African nation has one of the world’s lowest school enrollment rates in the world. Only 42 percent of primary school age children attend school and only 40 percent of those children are female., according to the UN.
The Yemen Community School gives kids much-needed structure and stability, said Action Africa Help Somalia project manager Abdullahi Keinan. It has also become a base for other outreach efforts, he added.
“We are providing quality education to Yemeni refugee children in Somalia,” he said. “We are also working with partner agencies to run a humanitarian logistics warehouse supplying non-food items.”
Action Africa Help Somalia provides students with books and meals and covers their expenses to attend the school. Most students in Somali pay a fee for their education.
Ismael Aden, a teacher at the Yemeni school, said children attending classes are given meals as part of school’s feeding program to boost the enrollment.
“I’m very happy as a teacher to impart education to young people who are looking for it,” said Aden. “These students are determined to achieve their dreams despite the challenges they are going through as refugees. This is amazing everyone here. It’s encouraging teachers and donors.
Importantly, teachers in the Yemeni school use Arabic as the language of instruction.Along with Somali, Arabic is one of Somalia’s official languages.
“We use the Saudi Arabian curriculum,” said Aden. “This is important because it allows Yemeni children who are used to their curriculum to transit without any problem.”
Halima Noor, 28, a parent who has two children attending the school said her two sons were receiving an education that was superior to their formers school in Yemen.
“I feel very happy when I see my children going to school,’ said Noor, who arrived in Mogadishu three years ago after her husband was shot dead by rebels in her hometown of Sanaa. “I know they have a bright future and this makes me happy when I’m sad. It removes my stress. I feel my dreams are still alive.”
Khalif felt the same way.
“I want to become a doctor because I have another chance to make it,” he said. “I can achieve my dream from anywhere.”
An alternative version of this story can be found here.
Now he’s among 5,800 Yemen refugees who are trying to make a new life in Somalia – an irony given how Somalis in the past have often fled to Yemen to escape violence in their country.
But with the help of the United Nations and international humanitarian groups, Khalif and thousands of other Yemen youths are receiving a basic education, often for the first time.
Civil war has engulfed Yemen since March 2015, killing more than 5,000 people.The conflict between forces loyal to the internationally-recognized government of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, a Sunni, and those allied to the Shiite Muslim Houthi rebel movement has become a proxy battle between Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The UN has warned of cholera, famine and a host of other issues as the civil war has raged.
“The conflict in Yemen has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world – a crisis which has engulfed the entire country,” said UN statement released in late December. “Yemen has passed the tipping point into a rapid decline from crisis to deepening catastrophe.”
The toll has been high on Somalia.
Around 34,000 Somali refugees in Yemeni have returned home since the war began, according to the UN. The weak government of President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has struggled to accommodate them while also fighting al-Shabaab extremists linked to Al Qaeda as well as a devastating drought.
The Yemen Community School has more than 229 boys and 191 girls from Yemen aged between 5 and 17 years old. Since its construction in 1978, various militias that have controlled either Somalia or Mogadishu have run the school. Some used the building as their headquarters during the civil war.
The school became a reception center for new refugee arrivals from Yemen and a distribution center for refugees and returnees. With the support of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Action Africa Help International, a regional NGO, rehabilitated the school with the goal of helping exclusively Yemen students.
More than one third of the world’s refugee children are missing out on education, according to UNICEF. In Somalia, tackling that problem is hard. The East African nation has one of the world’s lowest school enrollment rates in the world. Only 42 percent of primary school age children attend school and only 40 percent of those children are female., according to the UN.
The Yemen Community School gives kids much-needed structure and stability, said Action Africa Help Somalia project manager Abdullahi Keinan. It has also become a base for other outreach efforts, he added.
“We are providing quality education to Yemeni refugee children in Somalia,” he said. “We are also working with partner agencies to run a humanitarian logistics warehouse supplying non-food items.”
Action Africa Help Somalia provides students with books and meals and covers their expenses to attend the school. Most students in Somali pay a fee for their education.
Ismael Aden, a teacher at the Yemeni school, said children attending classes are given meals as part of school’s feeding program to boost the enrollment.
“I’m very happy as a teacher to impart education to young people who are looking for it,” said Aden. “These students are determined to achieve their dreams despite the challenges they are going through as refugees. This is amazing everyone here. It’s encouraging teachers and donors.
Importantly, teachers in the Yemeni school use Arabic as the language of instruction.Along with Somali, Arabic is one of Somalia’s official languages.
“We use the Saudi Arabian curriculum,” said Aden. “This is important because it allows Yemeni children who are used to their curriculum to transit without any problem.”
Halima Noor, 28, a parent who has two children attending the school said her two sons were receiving an education that was superior to their formers school in Yemen.
“I feel very happy when I see my children going to school,’ said Noor, who arrived in Mogadishu three years ago after her husband was shot dead by rebels in her hometown of Sanaa. “I know they have a bright future and this makes me happy when I’m sad. It removes my stress. I feel my dreams are still alive.”
Khalif felt the same way.
“I want to become a doctor because I have another chance to make it,” he said. “I can achieve my dream from anywhere.”
An alternative version of this story can be found here.
