Potential famine in Somalia pushes children out of school

As families continue to grapple with going for days without food to eat in the drought stricken country of Somalia, children are the most vulnerable and affected. Already, towns are beginning to swell with destitute people in search of food, water and employment and this is taking a toll on education. In Somaliland, more than 118 schools were recently closed because of the emergency droughts. Prices water trucking is going up by the day, making it hard for even school feeding. According to the UN, already 3, million-school age going children are out of school in Somalia. Somalia is severely affected given the slow recovery from the 2011 famine, a situation that is exacerbated by protracted conflict, widespread poverty and inadequate access to basic services.

After losing his entire livestock, 50-year old, Ali Mohammed Said moved with his wife and six children to Jilaab village at Garowe, in the capital of Puntland state in northeastern Somalia, to seek help. He is one of many pastoralists to flee increasing effects of drought.

 Ali Mohamed with his family. He fled from his hometown to Jilaab village in Garowe due to the increasing effects of the drought

“My children don’t go to school. The books you see here were given to them as gifts by friends from families that are helping us here. They brought them to show them what they are learning,” Ali, says.

“Even in the rural home it was hard for my children to go to school because we kept moving to look for pasture. My children don’t go to school because they will need uniform, I will have to pay school fees, which I don’t have, and that adds to the burden in my life and taking care of them,” he adds.

Mohamed, a 14-year-old boy in class three at Usgure Primary School in Dangorayo District, Puntland, understands the harsh realities of an imminent famine that is plaguing his country. The young teenager has witnessed some of his classmates drop out of school and many more children have left with their parents to look for pasture for their animals.

“Life is very hard for all of us in the village because we do not have food. Other people have left, and one of my friends does not come to school anymore,”” he says.

Mr. Abdirizak, the headmaster of the school, adds that most people have lost their livestock, leaving them without milk to drink, food to eat or even something to sell in order to earn money. He notes that some pupils no longer attend school because either they are too weak to walk to school because of lack of food or they are unable to afford school fees. Mr. Abdirizak foresees a situation where children will continue to drop out of school if the drought persists and no immediate help is forthcoming.

Said Ali, a class one pupil at the same school says: “Drought to me means that livestock die, we have no food and we also have no water.” Before the drought, Said’s family had about 200 livestock but now they only have 100 left.

 Said Ali, a pupil at Usgure primary school. His family has lost most of their livestock due to the drought in Somalia 

“We are no longer able to buy food and there is also no money to pay for school fees because most of our animals have died, and people do not want to buy animals that they fear are about to die,” Said says.

Elsewhere in Mayale village, Abdinasir, a teacher at Mayale Primary School asserts that pupils are dropping out of school because their parents are relocating in search of pasture for their livestock or they are too weak to come to school for lack of food.

“In my class, four pupils have stopped coming to school because of the drought,” he says.

The numbers of people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance in Somalia have risen to 6.7 million. About 363,000 children under-5 years are acutely malnourished, and 71,000 are severely malnourished. The UN has warned that about 944,000 children under-5 years face acute malnutrition and 185,000 are projected to be severely malnourished in 2017. Labour earning opportunities are continuing to decline as labour earning activities diminish further. The river levels are declining, meaning less water for irrigation and hence less prospects for farming along the irrigated riverine areas.

World Vision is on the ground providing life saving assistance to the affected population targeting 1 million people and has so far reache 330,140 people with various interventons in Puntland, Somaliland  and South Central Somalia