HISTORY AND BACKGROUND
Horn of Africa has historically been a region of instability and chaos. The governments in the region changed hands many times throughout history due to military coups. Long-time dictatorship and lack of good governance and effective leadership is the norm in that particular region. All those reasons led to outbreak of violence, civil war, starvation and famine which in turn caused internal displacement of the people within their respective communities. Many had fled into neighboring countries and region. To take Somalia as an example in one of the countries our organization operates, the first phase of the civil war in Somalia stemmed from the insurrections against the repressive regime of Siad Barre. After his ousting from power on January 26, 1991, a counter-revolution took place to attempt to reinstate him as leader of the country. The increasingly violent and chaotic situation evolved to a humanitarian crisis and to a state of anarchy. Later in 1991, to insulate it from the more violent fighting in the south, the Somaliland region of Somalia declared itself independent, though its sovereignty is not recognized by any nation or international organization. It comprises the northwestern section of the country, between Djibouti and the northeastern area known as Puntland. The conflict consumed most of southern Somalia with the result of famous starvations in Bay and Bakol regions. The UN Security Council authorized Humanitarian Intervention. The UN withdrew on March 3, 1995, having suffered more significant casualties. Order in Somalia still had not been restored. Numerous attempts to reconcile the warring Somali groups failed and transitional federal government could not restore peace and stability in the country. Many young and educated members of society were either killed or fled from country in search of peace and opportunity.
The life of ordinary Somalis has continuously been deteriorating since there was no central, regional and local governments helping the displaced poor and vulnerable populations. There was no or slow international intervention which led to famous starvations, and the death of hundreds of thousands of people in the region.
The livelihood such as water, food and basic health services become unavailable. The life stocks and simple agriculture vanished because of continuous drought. Many rural nomadic families lost their entire livestock and moved to small towns, villages and settlements without any service such as schools, clinics, sanitation, latrines, and running water. Such abrupt change of lifestyle and movement of people into overcrowded environment caused the outbreak of diseases such as Diarrheal disease, cholera, malaria, TB and so on . According to UNICEF humanitarian action plan for Somalia in 2006, an estimated 5.6 million Somali children continue to live without or with limited access to basic services and are highly vulnerable to preventable disease.
Somali children are further disadvantaged by disease, conflict and harsh environmental conditions. According to UNICEF report, the net primary attendance ratio is lower than anywhere in the world, at just 12 percent for boys and 10 percent for girls. Years of underinvestment have left Somalia lagging behind the rest of the developing world in education. This situation is complicated by lack of a functioning national administration since 1991 had further constrained human development in Somalia, which according to the 2004 under-five mortality rate, has the sixth worst under-five mortality rate in the world. Some 26 percent of Somali children are moderately or severely underweight, while 133 out of every 1,000 children will die in infancy. “An estimated 5.6 million Somali children continue to live without or with limited access to basic services and are highly vulnerable to preventable disease,” UNICEF noted in its humanitarian action plan for Somalia in 2006. Despite continued conflict and unstable environment our organization and other local and international partners ensure that Somali children benefit from greater access to healthcare, education, clean water and an enhanced protective environment. Our organization Puts children at the centre of the agenda aiming to ensure that we plan for the education, health and protection of every Somali child: including the poorest, most vulnerable pastoralist child in the remotest rural village.
When the situation became worse, and overwhelming, the community elders of that area contacted us (members of Diaspora in USA and Europe). Community leaders informed us that the situation in this region is very critical and getting worse by the day. The elders told us that the young generation of that region became the target of warlords who wanted to recruit and train them fight alongside them .
After that the elders, Diaspora members in USA and Europe joined in a teleconference meeting and discussed the situation. The outcome was the creation of temporary committee on 3/29/2003 in order to handle this problem.
After three months we called for a larger conference among the members of Diaspora. The meeting was held in Minneapolis, MN on 7/4/2003. There were 55 participants and that conference was sponsored by members of business community in Minnesota who originally came from the Horn of Africa region. After the discussion of that issues and taking into consideration of how limited our capacity was to start with, we decided to focus few problems to concentrate on such as education, water and sanitation. We realized how limited our ability to help was, but at same time members clearly understood the differences whatever assistance we provide could make in the lives of many children, their families and their communities. There was no any other assistance available to those communities. We started with community needs assessment and found that those towns, villages and settlements lacked basic services. However, it was proposed an interim steering committee as well as education committee to be nominated from the attending members. The committees were tasked to work together and study what kinds of programs and initiatives that can be started and resources that could be tapped. After 2 months the committee called for another teleconference to discuss the findings and report back the progress made toward the assigned task.
Our committee decided to start two primary schools in Boame and Karin Gorfood townships as a pilot project. The committee found that the two townships had the most of children without school. Members started contributing $100.00 each as a initial project fund.
The number of students had gradually been increasing every year, so as the number of contributing members. By the beginning of 2005 school year we had a total of 250 students ranching from grades 1 to 4th occupying 6 classrooms into different towns. The students consisted of 65% of boys and 35% of girls in those schools. We found that these classes were so
congested and students-teacher ratio was 40–50 students for each teacher. The needs of students were increasing as the number of students increased. The school supplies, furniture, and available bathrooms were all short. The sanitation in general was deteriorating and it became necessary to hire 2 sanitation personals and 1 security guard for each school. There were nearby towns with good number of students without school. The interim committee passed a budget for the construction of 3 rooms and 2 bathrooms in the city of BURAWADAL. By June 2006 the school construction was completed. However, we had only 3 months to recruit teachers and register children for classes, while at same time procuring the school supplies and furniture. Local community members had appreciably contributed to the construction of new school by providing workforce. They have also provided transportation of school supplies and furniture. Luckily we were able to prepare the school to open on time (September).
At the beginning of school year of 2006/2007 we started 1st class that consisted 40 students with one teacher in the city of B/WADAL.
Besides adding the well needed Burawadal class we concentrated our efforts on the improvement of the quality of education the children receive. In 2007 we started raising funds in order to hire an education coordinator for the 3 towns (Boame, Karin Garfood, and Burawadal). We hired a sanitation personal at Burawadal school for the remaining of funds of that year.
During the summer 2007 the new coordinator made an effort to centralize the management of the 3 schools. He made a field assessment of overall situation and the needs of schools with the help of UNICEF local staff (Table 1). Upon receiving that report the education committee found that more resources were needed to maintain the education program and to address other pressing needs such as lack of water, lack of sanitation, lack of school activities and so on. After that report in august 2007 the education committee discussed the findings of the report and input with the interim (transitional) committee. It was decided to increase both membership fee and to recruit more members. In order to do that we formed an unincorporated association and named HARUN. HARUN stands for (Horn of Africa Rural and Urban Networks). HARUN association was running the programs and the budget reached $10,000, for the first time due to an increase of membership fee and more generous contributions of members during the fundraising period.
Table 1:
| Township | Existing type of education | # of enrolled children | Estimated # out of school | Nature of emergency reported | Source information | ||||
|
Girls |
Boys |
Total |
|
||||||
| Buro-wadal | Primary |
35 |
40 |
75 |
260 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | ||
| Tuko-raqq | Primary |
45 |
73 |
118 |
370 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | ||
| Quranic |
70 |
130 |
200 |
200 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | |||
| Boame | Primary |
86 |
219 |
305 |
530 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | ||
| Quranic |
70 |
100 |
170 |
00 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | |||
| HS |
63 |
57 |
120 |
200 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | |||
| Karin-gorfood | Integrated |
46 |
44 |
90 |
180 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | ||
| Dan | Quranic |
26 |
43 |
69 |
150 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | ||
| Far-dhidin | Integrated |
27 |
55 |
82 |
100 |
Drought / displacement | School teachers / Coord | ||
|
468 |
761 |
1229 |
1990 |
Drought / displacement | |||||
PROJECTED BUDGET:
| Revenue |
Agency |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
| Government Grants |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Contracts |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Foundation |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Contributions (business, non-member) |
0 |
$540.00 |
300 |
320 |
| Membership fee, dues |
20,000 |
$9,600 |
$12,000 |
$13,200 |
| Individuals donors |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Fees for services |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Sales |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Fundraisers and events |
0 |
0 |
$505.00 |
$515.00 |
| Endowment |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Interest income |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Miscellaneous |
3,500 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Total cash revenue |
$23,500 |
$10,140 |
$12,805 |
$14,035 |
| Total in-kind revenue |
$0 |
205 |
$0 |
$0 |
| Total Revenue |
$23,500 |
$10,345 |
$12,805 |
$14,035 |
| Expenses |
Agency |
Year 1 |
Year 2 |
Year 3 |
| Staff salary and benefits | $ 6,400.00 | $ 7,200.00 | $ 8,100.00 | |
|
Position |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Position |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Position |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Occupancy (rent and utilities) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Insurance |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Legal, accounting |
0 |
$ 315.00 | $ 450.00 | $ 475.00 |
| Equipment |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Supplies |
0 |
$ 1,200.00 | $ 1,650.00 | $ 1,750.00 |
| Printing and copying |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Telecommunications |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Travel and meetings |
0 |
$ 375.00 | $ 670.00 | $ 710.00 |
| Marketing and advertising |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Staff training/development |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Contract services, Security |
0 |
$ 480.00 | $ 687.00 | $ 720.00 |
| Repair & maintainence |
0 |
$ 1,000.00 | $ 1,200.00 | $ 1,300.00 |
| Staff training |
0 |
$ 575.00 | $ 948.00 | $ 980.00 |
| Other |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| General administration (“X” %) |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Total cash expenses |
$0 |
$ 10,345.00 | $ 12,805.00 | $ 14,035.00 |
| In-kind | ||||
| List item |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| List item |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| List item |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Total in-kind expenses |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
| Total Expenses |
$0 |
$10,345 |
$12,805 |
$14,035 |
| Revenue over Expenses |
$23,500 |
$0 |
$0 |
$0 |
|