HARGEISA, 28 November 2008 (IRIN) - Children in parts of Somalia's self-declared republic of Somaliland have never gone to school because their communities prefer they remain at home and learn petty trades, a local NGO said. The communities include the Gaboye, Midgan, Tumal and Yibro - most of whom lead reclusive lives and do not interact or inter-marry with other communities. They are mostly cobblers, blacksmiths and barbers. Abdillahi Hassan Digale, chairman of the Ubah Social Welfare Organization (USWO), said the NGO had interviewed 31 families, with 118 children aged seven to 14, and only five were in school.
"The main obstacles against children going to school are the economic status and social exclusion of these minority groups," Digale said. However, various initiatives are being undertaken to uplift the communities' status. "In collaboration with UNICEF [the UN Children's Fund] and the University of Hargeisa, we have built one education centre for minority children in Daami and enrolled almost 300 pupils," Abdillahi said. "The university has also started a programme that gives higher education scholarships to five minority children every year."
During a study in August, USWO found eight families in Koosaar camp for internally displaced persons, where only two children were enrolled in school, in Burao, the second-largest city in Somaliland. "I have three children who can go to school but they don't because we like our children to study the skills of their parents such as shoe-making and running barber shops," Bedra Ibrahim Dalbac, a resident of Burao, told IRIN. Moreover, he said, discrimination by other communities made it hard for them to send their children to school.
"Also, our income is not enough to provide for the schooling, so we just think about taking care of them and forget about schooling," he added. Another parent, Bedel Biihi Mohamud, said he had enrolled three of his five children in school. "Five of my children reached school-going age but only three attend school, while the other two work with me in shoe-making because we don't have enough money to send all of them to school," he said. However, according to USWO, lack of education opportunities for minorities is the main reason for the communities' failure to send their children to school.
"In addition, most parents are hesitant to send children to public schools due to discrimination," he added. "Somaliland authorities say schools are open for minority children but they don't have a policy that specifically targets them." Minority groups had a representative in the lower house of Somaliland's parliament, but he lost the seat in the last election.
Two officials from minority communities - the deputy minister of health and labour, Mahdi Osman Buri, and Jirde Sa'id Mohamoud, a member of the standing committee of the Upper House of Parliament - remain in government.
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