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Summary: Somali Child Protection and Development (SOCPD) is a non-profit organisation that engages in child protection and development activities in many parts of Somalia.
Somali Child Protection and Development (SOCPD) is a non-profit organisation that engages in child protection and development activities in many parts of Somalia. Somalia is a country ravaged by civil unrest and where all functioning government infrastructures have been fully devastated. The organisation was established in 1999 under a board of trustees with the aim to respond to the painstaking consequences to the Somali community in general and suffering Somali children in particular. The SOCPD is geared to promote children's rights for education as they face missing out in education for one generation while mortality rates has compounded due to the lack of health care services. The child, future human power, is a revealing indicator for any country's development. The organisation has been specially focused on promoting child protection and development, and so it has carried out education, health care programmes, feeding, and so on. There is an action plan aimed to involve activities on child protection, survival and development in collaboration with donor agencies, to realise a world where the children could find their rights on many sectors. Somali children witnessed endless civil war since the downfall of Siad Barre’s regime in 1991. They are suffering symptoms of stress and trauma (sleeplessness, nightmare, depression, stress etc) as a result to exposure to traumatic events caused by conflicts. Children belonging to segregated, outcast communities, minority clans and internally displaced children are the most disadvantaged of Somali children, including those in IDP camps. In this regard The SOCPD is child rights organisation that engages in promoting advocacy for child protection rights and development through guidance, advice and support. All the children whatever their race, sex etc, have the same right to be protected, educated, and trained to become useful members of the society. Unfortunately that is not the case in everywhere. The situation of the children in Somalia is far from being satisfactory especially in regard to health, education and upbringing. The children make up the riches, the power, and the future of a country and that is why the question of their future should be of interest to all of us. If the SOCPD did not respond to the main needs of children and did not seek long lasting benefits for children and ways in which children could be helped to grow up, to contribute more fully to society the children, these children will be prone to unfavourable situations such as exposition to exploitation, harmful labour, juvenile delinquency, dependence on stimulants, social crimes and other kinds of discrimination. The earlier the SOCPD intervenes and responds to the needs of children the more readily we would bring happiness and help them to grow into adults.
BACKGROUND: HISTORY OF CHILD, EDUCATION AND HEALTH From 1960-1969:No national planning existed in Somalia to take into consideration children’s right for education and health in the development process. At independence, the Republic of Somalia inherited 233 primary schools and 12 secondary schools (some general, some professional) of various origin, using different language and instructions, such as, Arabic, English, and Italian. Excluding the government schools, students were supposed to pay monthly fees to the private schools. Educational facilities were very limited during that period. The school’s enrolment and attendance rates were very low. Firstly because the majority of the families were not aware of the educational value at that time, and secondly because the majority of the families were not able to pay school fees or purchase educational materials including, books, cloths for their children. And so, only children of relatively well to do families used to be enrolled and attended the private schools. Those children of relatively low socio-economic families, on the other hand, were enrolled only in government schools whilst those of relatively very poor families and orphanage did not even have the opportunity to be enrolled and never enjoyed their rights to education. Rights to health: The only health services that existed in the country between 1960-1969 offered curative service only. The general hospitals including the paediatric and gynaecology were only found in the capital city. The majority of the children from the poor families did not have excess to health service. Communities that lived in the rural areas were not able to benefit from the few existing district hospitals and out patient services. On the one hand they were not aware of the importance of the health service, and on the other, the lack of transportation to the existing facilities prevented them from having access. A military regime took over the control of Somalia in 1969 through a revolution; without bloodshed all the public services were taken over by the Government including the mass media (radios, newspapers), and so governments officials generally carried out human right abuses, including intimidation and harassment. The mass media was used to release information and messages bias to the government’s interests, and never subject related to the promotion of children’s education. The military rulers immediately announced that there would be no monopoly on educational system in the country as a whole and constructed several school. In early 1970s the Somali national university was establish in Mogadishu. In January 1972 the military regime introduced the first alphabet using Latin style and thus gradually become the medium in the construction in the school system. From 1973 to 1974 a mass literacy campaign was launched together with with the expansion of the country’s education system. The Arabic, Italian and English education system was replaced by Somali National Education System and it claimed to have raised literacy from about 5% to almost of population of he 15 years and over. Enrolment in primary school reportedly rose from 28,000 in 1970 to 271 in 1982 whilst the number of primary school increased from 287 in 1970 to 1407 by 1981. The number of teachers rose to 3,370 in 1981. From 1977 to 1978 the Ogaden war governments resources were diverted from social sector to military use and by the late 1980s, less than 2% of the national recurrent expenditure was allocated to education compared with 11% in the mid 1970s); this resulted in the closure of many schools, the rapid decline in enrolment, the departure of many administrators and teachers who sought better enumeration elsewhere. Although educational system was very poor in quality, only children from SRC (Somali Revolution Council, Ministries, Businessmen) families enjoyed the right for education and health services in Country and abroad. On the other hands children of relatively poor families or from low class never enjoyed the privileges to go to University even if they had high grade in the final education of the secondary school. HEALTH: from1969-1990, Somalia committed itself to improve its health service under the auspices of WHO for all by the year 2000 program of primary health care. Development plans were drawn for basic health services that were to focus on rural and nomadic populations. The health care delivery system then consisted of 411 health posts, 94 maternal and child health care centres, 50 primary health care units, 52 district hospitals, 19 regional hospitals, 4 general hospitals and 17 specialised hospitals. External resources thus raised concern on sustainability either heavily or completely and subsidised almost all health care provided in pre-war Somali. The curative health services; the majority of the hospitals were more or less concentrated in the urban centres, while in the periphery or rural areas were poor adjusted. In 1985, the medical staff and medical facilities were unequally distributed in the regions of the country. For example, the total number of doctors was estimated to be around 323, 225 of whom were working in the capital city. The total number of medical assistants was 43, 34 of whom worked in the capital city. The number of nurses in the country was about 1560, almost 591 of whom worked in Mogadishu. While the total number of much needed nurses were 88, 14 of them worked in the capital. From 1990-2003: During this period several events took place in the country. Armed movements from the central regions against Said Bare proceeded on their way to the capital city; the Mogadishu social upheaval; the departure of the dictator followed the civil war that brought about the worst human devastation as well as material resources. The aftermath showed that about 90% the schools building of the country were either completely or partially destroyed. In addition many were occupied by internally displaced persons. Almost all educational material and equipment were looted. There was no public financing for education; teachers and administrators were unpaid, and most children had no school to attend.
Education today in Somalia: Revival of education facilities began in early 1993,when communities and teachers began re-opening schools (particularly in urban centres). UN agencies, donor organisations and international NGOS all took initiatives; these organisations provided assistance to rehabilitate limited number of school premises. However, as from 1995,the level of external donor assistance declined and food initiatives were terminated. This resulted in sharp drop in functional schools and enrolments. Many schools that claim to be open are not functioning, except when the possibility of donor agencies appears. By 1997 there was a very small number of children attending schools at a level of grade eight and there is no one to finishing secondary schools. For Somali families with adequate income, private and use of private tutors have replaced the collapsed public school system. Most private schools are concentrated in a few urban centres. Many Somali families (with necessary financial resources) make decision about where to reside depending on the quality and proximately of private schools. Access to schooling was exclusively based on income between the poor and the relatively affluent families’ incoming decades. Families with better-educated adults cope with collapse of the education system by hiring private tutors. Moreover, for many Somalis who seek resettlement abroad, they desire access to quality education from their list of priorities as well as access to quality of educational facilities, and so this is one of the primary "push" factors leading Somali families to resettle in Kenya, Yemen, Syria and elsewhere. The children of Diaspora Somalis will be the cores professional class of their generation in coming years whether they are repatriated to Somalia or remain in the Diaspora will have a powerful effect on Somalis.
Health: What follows below is a combination of pre-war and current data assembled to provide a basic picture of the state of health in Somali population. Life expectancy at birth was 43-46 years in 1995-1997. Even in1990, Somalia_ life expectance of 48 years was nearly three years lower than the average of 50.9 for sub-Saharan African (SSA). Infant mortality at around 159 per 1000 live birth in 1990 was also much greater than the average for SSA. In 1993 (97 per 1000) according to WHO, here figures are again the worsened over the course of the war in 1990, due to lack of prenatal care, malnutrition, diseases and stress. Many of the deaths are from preventable cause. Poor antenatal, delivery and postnatal care and extremely limited availability of emergency obstetric referral case for birth resulted in high rates of mortality and disability; there are also regular epidemic outbreaks of cholera, measles.
Health care facilities and professionals: Most health care facilities suffered extensive damage during the war, and most of the country’s trained physicians have left the country. Consequently, Somalis face serious shortage of both trained health workers and operating health centres. The health posts and hospitals that do provide care tended to be dependent on external support. Internally displaced: Hundred of thousands of Somalis are displaced people with limited access to stable employment. The displaced people constitute half of the people living on the periphery of urban centres. They are vulnerable to personal insecurity, sexual and labour exploitation, eviction, destruction, and confiscation of assets, biased media reporting and lack of regular protection. Their access to health and educational services is limited and the children of the displaced families earn their life by washing cars, shoe shiners, particularly males, while females work as home servants, by washing cloths etc. Convention on the right of the child: due to the lack of central Government, Somalia is one of the two countries not to have signed the Convention on the Right of the Child (C. R. C.). In the war for example, children have an absolute right of protection. Nevertheless, hundreds of thousand of children died in the 1992 famine. Somalia has some of the highest levels of infant mortality in the world and some of the poorest educational opportunities. Thousands of children are living in destitution in displaced camps or the street, especially in Mogadishu.