(ERGO) – Ali Abdi Ali is happy that four of his seven children are now back at school following the family’s eviction from an IDP camp in the Somali capital Mogadishu’s Kahda district last year that disrupted their education.
“The children are back at school and my joy is back! I was afraid that my children would become street children sniffing glue and using other substances, but thanks to Allah they are now back at school,” Ali Abdi told Radio Ergo’s local reporter.
He described the six months that his children were idling at home as the toughest experience for parents.
“Whenever the children went out to play with other kids, they got hurt or hurt other children. Two of my children suffered head injuries fighting with other children, and they also caused injuries to the neighbour’s children. We were constantly solving problems caused by the children! Now that is over,” he said.
Ali’s family was among those evicted from Qoryoley camp in Deynile, which had a school with 104 children enrolled. He told Radio Ergo that he went round requesting free places at six private schools but they all told him he would have to pay fees of $10 per child, which he could not afford.
They were grateful that volunteer youth group, Tusmo, managed to build four primary classrooms their new camp, Al-naciim camp in Igadabagee village in Deynile district.
Ali and his family moved to Mogadishu from Mukey-dheer in Middle Shabelle in 2018, when the river Shabelle burst its bank and swept away hundreds of properties including his shop, with goods worth $3,000. He had invested in the shop after selling off his 30 goats, hoping it would provide them with a better living.
In Al-naciim camp, Ali and his family live in two makeshift structures made of branches and scraps of plastic sheeting and cardboard. He collects firewood from outside town on a rented donkey-cart, earning about $100 a month from sales, which is enough for two meals a day and to buy books and pens for his children.
Deputy chairman of youth group Tusmo, Fatumo Mohamed Yussuf, told Radio Ergo that they had received several requests from the displaced families in Al-naciim camp to set up a school for them. Most of the 500 camp residents originate from Lower and Middle-Shabelle and Bay and Bakool regions.
Tusmo raised $3,000 from Somalis living in America to build four classrooms out of corrugated iron. The school already has 190 students enrolled. One of them Aisho Mohamed Ali, 12, in class two, who said she is happy to be back in school and hopes to continue to high school. Sadly, Aisho’s three siblings are at home as their mother cannot afford to buy them books on what she earns doing laundry jobs in Mogadishu.
The school teachers are education students at local universities who volunteer their services free of charge. Tusmo hopes to start schools in other IDP camps in the city as well.
