(ERGO) – Since June, 150 children have been receiving free education in Bulo-Haji, a remote village in southern Somalia’s Lower Juba region, where the first ever school has opened.
Abdirisak Muhumad Abdi, 12, who comes from a nomadic family, is attending class for the first time in his life. He sees this as a fresh beginning.
“We didn’t have any education before, but now we do. In the mornings, I walk to Bulo-Haji. I study four subjects including Somali, English, Mathematics, and Arabic. In the afternoons, I walk back home,” he told Radio Ergo.
Abdirisak, who is enrolled in the first grade, added that he never imagined he would have access to free education.
Together with his two younger brothers, aged 9 and 10, they walk the five kilometres from their home in Dharkenlay to school every day. He also hopes that his two sisters, who are not yet old enough for school, will join them in the future.
Abdirisak’s father, Muhumad Abdi, saw the opportunity when the free school was opened for ages 7-14 and decided to enroll his three older children for the first time.
Despite the long walk, Muhumad says the family is not concerned about the distance. They are comforted by the fact that their children walk alongside four other children from the neighbourhood, creating a supportive group for the daily trek to school.
When Abdirisak returns from school in the afternoon, he helps his family tend to their livestock.
“We go to school with the other students, when I return I usually find my mother cooking food and I take the livestock for herding and being them back at night. I do my school work at night using a torch, it is hard,” he said.
This family, like many others in the area, relies on livestock for their livelihood. They own 50 goats, which they herd around the outskirts of Kismayo.
For now, however, the students are learning under the shade of a large acacia tree, as there are no classrooms available.
Bishar Adan Mohamed, another resident of Bulo-Haji, has six children enrolled in the school, including four boys and two girls aged between 7 and 14. He is thrilled to see the first school in the area after living there for 18 years.
“A child leaving the home in the morning and attending school and Koranic lessons is a very good thing. I am happy to see my children learning and we don’t pay anything,” he said.
He added that sending his children to study in the city of Kismayo, 90 kilometres away, had been a dream that he couldn’t afford.
He noted that six of his children also attended a Koranic school, where he pays $7 for the lessons.
Over the past two months, Bishar said he has noticed his children’s understanding and engagement with their studies steadily improving. They also receive school supplies, including books and pencils.
Bishar and his family of 14 people own five-hectares of farm land and 15 goats in Bulo-Haji.
The school initiative was spearheaded by a group of 14 young people from the local community. After seeing the pressing need for education among the farming and pastoralist families in the area, they decided to take action.
The school’s headmaster, Hussein Hasan Bashir, explained to Radio Ergo that the group raised $900 to buy essential supplies like books, pencils, and blackboards for the students. They also got support from the Jubbaland Ministry of Education, which donated 60 textbooks for grades one to four.
“We volunteered ourselves. We bought books and materials that the students needed. When we arrived, the students didn’t have any resources to learn. We gathered the students and their parents and shared our plan with them. Then we informed them that we were going to open a school in the area and they would bring their children,” the headmaster said.
While there are still many challenges, including the need to raise money to build classrooms, the local community is optimistic that the efforts to improve education will continue to grow and flourish.
