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Hargeysa, Somaliland, July 3, 2010 – When
Sabah Ismail Ali, a social worker in Somalia's self-declared republic of
Somaliland, first started working with children, truancy and aggression
were common, especially among children from families with problems such
as extreme poverty and displacement.
"I started off as a child protection officer,
then I later trained as a psycho-social worker, qualifying by December
2007. I realized right from the start that many children who showed
aggression were being caned by teachers who had no idea of the social
problems such children were dealing with," Ali told IRIN.
In efforts to help children from difficult
backgrounds deal with psycho-social issues, a local NGO, the
Comprehensive Community-Based Rehabilitation in Somaliland (CCBRS)
partnered a Ugandan NGO, the Transcultural Psychosocial Organization (TPO)
in mid-2009 and, with funding from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF),
introduced social clubs in four schools where the majority of the
students were from displaced families.
Ali, who was involved in the project from its
initial stages, told IRIN: "Before the clubs were set up, we first
approached the Ministry of Education to explain what we wanted to do,
then we identified the schools. We then met the schools' administrators
and some of the teachers and explained our mission.
"We
started by training the teachers in various aspects of providing
psycho-social support and how to counsel children facing social
problems."
Club
culture
Three types of clubs were then introduced to
pupils aged 10 and above in the four identified schools: the
environmental and sanitation club; culture, sports and arts club, and
the awareness-raising club. At least 60 pupils (30 boys and 30 girls)
belong to each club in the four schools: Guryasamo Intermediate School,
Fadumo Bihi Primary and Intermediate School, Mohamed Moge Primary and
Intermediate School and Ahmed Gurey Primary and Intermediate School.
"Soon, clubs became operational and we started
seeing a reduction in the number of pupils who would be caned by
teachers for truancy," Ali said.
In the past, if a child misbehaved in class,
teachers would punish them with detention, canning or suspension, which
led to many children dropping out of school. "Previously, children would
drop out of school without anyone understanding why, but with the
introduction of the clubs and the training of teachers as counselors,
these cases have also reduced because teachers now know how to handle
children with social and psycho-social problems."
Since most of the children are from poor and
displaced families, Ali said, the truancy could at times be because they
had not had a good meal in a while, "so a good thing has come out of the
clubs because with this understanding, some schools are now even waiving
their fees for the poor pupils who cannot even afford to have breakfast
in their homes.
"With these clubs, what stands out for me is
not only the reduction in school dropouts but the improved
teacher-student relationship; pupils now have the confidence to come up
to a teacher and explain a problem; this is something they could not do
before," Ali said.
She added that the clubs had become so popular
that schools and parents were urging CCBRS to introduce them in other
schools so that more children could benefit.
Fighting corporal punishment
Abib Ahmed Hirsi, the CCBRS programme officer,
said the NGO would assess the impact the clubs had had on the children's
social development a year after they were introduced in the four
schools.
"Part of the clubs' activities is to discourage
use of corporal punishment; sometimes we have awareness-raising weeks
which we label 'Week without sticks' or 'No sticks, schools free from
sticks'," Hirsi said.
Ettie Higgins, head of UNICEF in Hargeysa, told
IRIN the agency's goal in creating child-friendly spaces and school
clubs was to foster participation and to promote the psycho-social
wellbeing of children from marginalized communities.
"UNICEF seeks to promote both the physical and
the psycho-socio-emotional health of the child, guaranteeing a safe and
protective space for learning," she said. "This programme has directly
benefited approximately 2,500 school-children."
js-ah/mw
Source: IRIN, June 30, 2010
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