SOMALILAND / IDP AID

Forced as a child to flee from conflict in Somalia's capital Mogadishu to the relative peace of a camp for internally displaced people (IDPs) in Somaliland, Warda Mohammed Ali graduated top of her class in a UNHCR-funded vocational centre and is now a head teacher there. Some 44,000 people call this IDP camp home. UNHCR

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:40
• Production Date: 14 April 2012
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR REFUGEES - UNHCR
• Subject Topical: REFUGEES; DISPLACED PERSONS
• Geographic Subject: SOMALIA
• MAMS Id: U120414b

Description

STORY: SOMALILAND / IDP AID
TRT: 2.40
SOURCE: UNHCR
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SOMALI / NATS

DATELINE: 7, 8 MARCH 2012, HARGEISA, SOMALILAND

Shotlist

7, 8 MARCH 2012, HARGEISA, SOMALILAND

1. Wide shot, Hargeisa town
2. Wide shot, Hargeisa Street
3. Wide shot, residents in main town square
4. Med shot, fighter jet monument
5. Various shots, tents in Hargeisa's IDP camp
6. Med shot, IDP women standing
8. Med shot, elderly IDP women sitting
9. Med shot, Farah in her grocery shop
10. Close up, Farah's hands sorting fruits
11. Med shot, Farah selling goods
12. Med shot, goats
13. Close up, Farah's daughter
14. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Farah, Somali internally displaced person (IDP):
¨But now that we received some financial support, my children are no longer on the street. I’m paying their school fees, and feeding the family. Although my husband still hasn’t found a job, our relationship has really improved.¨
15. Med shot, Hargeisa street
16. Med shot, IDP's masonry class
17. Wide shot, exterior Havoyoco Vocational Training Center
18. Close up, Havoyoco Vocational Training Center signboard
19. Wide shot, IDPs welding class
20. Close up, mural of a computer on vocational centre wall
21. Various shots, Warda Mohammed Ali conducting class
22. Med shot, IDP girls in class
23. Med shot, Warda teaching
24. Med shot, more IDP girls
25. SOUNDBITE (Somali) Warda Mohammed Ali, Somali internally displaced person (IDP):
“We were twelve children in Mogadishu. Our father was not working, so we left the city without him, and came here with our mother. Life was tough. We were a very large family in a dire economic situation. I had to assist the family by any means. So I came to the Vocational Centre, learned new skills, got a job here and I’m now the breadwinner of the family, and I even pay the children’s school fees.
26. Various shots, IDPs in welding class
27. Various shots, Moussa Mahmoud, Havoyoco Vocational Training Centre Project Manager overseeing welding class
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Moussa Mahmoud, Havoyoco, Vocational Training Centre Project Manager:
‘'They are unemployment, the most unemployment in the youth in the Somaliland are the IDPs. So that’s why, the centre is important to provide free education of the skills.”
29. Med shot, Farah selling goods
30. Pan left, IDP tents
31. Med shot, IDP women sitting by her tent
32. Wide shot, Hargeisa town, woman walking

Storyline

In Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa, life is relatively peaceful.

Near the central bank people gather.

Nearby this downed fighter jet serves as a reminder of Somalia’s civil war of the 1990s.

And just a few kilometers away another reminder.

Here, some 44,000 internally displaced people call this camp home. Having fled their own homes their challenge was to start over.

Farah, a mother of ten, is one of those. She got a small loan from a local microfinance scheme and opened a grocery shop, where she lives. She sells charcoal and milk from the cattle she breeds. With the money she earns, she is able to take care of her family.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Farah, Somali internally displaced person (IDP):
“But now that we received some financial support, my children are no longer on the street. I’m paying their school fees, and feeding the family. Although my husband still hasn’t found a job, our relationship has really improved.’’

Youth unemployment is also a problem for the IDPs. To earn money most do odd jobs like shoe shining, but some have managed to attend a UNHCR funded Vocational Centre.

Here IDP boys and girls learn skills such as masonry, welding, carpentry and computer literacy.

Warda Mohammed Ali is one of the centre’s successes. Once an IDP fleeing conflict in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, she graduated top of her class. Warda is now the centre’s head teacher in its computer courses.

SOUNDBITE (Somali) Warda Mohammed Ali, Somali internally displaced person (IDP):
“We were twelve children in Mogadishu. Our father was not working, so we left the city without him, and came here with our mother. Life was tough. We were a very large family in a dire economic situation. I had to assist the family by any means. So I came to the vocational centre, learned new skills, got a job here and I’m now the breadwinner of the family, and I even pay the children’s school fees.”

Training has helped hundreds of young people to find work and become self-sufficient.

SOUNDBITE (English) Moussa Mahmoud, Havoyoco, Vocational Training Centre Project Manager:
“They are unemployment, the most unemployment in the youth in the Somaliland are the IDPs. So that’s why, the centre is important to provide free education of the skills.”

The chance to learn a trade or to open a business changes the lives of IDPs.

Farah would like to expand her business and have a more permanent home for her family.

Returning to Mogadishu is still too dangerous. Here at least there is a semblance of peace and an economy that allow her and other IDPs opportunities to make a living.