SOMALIA

The problems caused by 30 years of civil war have been compounded by a series of severe droughts and subsequent famines.

Since the collapse of the education system, communities have taken different approaches to establishing locally run education services. While any progress is impressive, all these systems face enormous challenges. In many areas across the country, parents are not able to fund their children’s education. In addition to poverty, long distances to school, safety concerns, social norms favouring boys’ education, a lack of trained teachers  and the low availability of sanitation facilities, stops parents from enrolling children, particularly girls, in school.

The African Education Trust (AET), part of Street Child, started working in Somalia in 1996, at a time when many organizations were leaving the country after the aborted UN Peacekeeping mission. By working through local staff, organizations, and institutions we have been able to continue to operate throughout the country despite successive cycles of drought, famine, and conflict.

We provide essential quality education through school rehabilitation, psycho-social support for children experiencing long-term insecurity, teacher training, supporting parental involvement in school management and provision of hygiene facilities especially for girls and children with disabilities.

In all our work, we focus on excluded groups including pastoralists and people in remote rural communities, families displaced by conflict or drought, ethnic minorities, people living with disabilities, and girls and women.