Capital: Mogadishu
Area: 637,66 km²
Population: 8,6 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Somali, Bantu
Official language(s): Somali
Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Currency: 1 Somali shilling = 100 cents
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
The initiatives of SOS Children's Villages in Somalia began in 1983 with the signing of a government agreement. A property provided by the government in the capital of Mogadishu was chosen as the construction site for the first SOS Children's Village and its adjoining kindergarten. In subsequent years a school, a youth facility and a mother and child clinic were established on the same property. When the civil war broke out in 1990, SOS Children's Villages started a major medical emergency relief and food programme.
The SOS Hermann Gmeiner School was converted into an emergency clinic where adults and children injured in the war were cared for, and the mother and child clinic became part of the emergency relief programme. To date it remains the only functioning maternity ward and gynaecological care facility in the country. In order to provide SOS as well as other interested youths in Somalia with a professional training, the SOS Vocational Training Centre offers a three-year and a four-state-approved training for nurses or midwives.
For many years SOS Children's Villages was one of very few international relief organizations that were active in the south of the country.
Clans and warlords were controlling Mogadishu and many parts of the country for a long time, during the first half of 2006 the Islamic Court Union started to fight them and expelled the warlords from Mogadishu. Although there was relative peace for the inhabitants of Mogadishu the security situation remained unstable for foreigners. The SOS Nurse Training School tragically lost its principal, Sister Leonella Sgorbati, who was shot by gunmen in September of the same year. Consequently all expatriate staff had to be evacuated.
War erupted again when the troops of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia, together with Ethiopian troops, started to fight the Islamic forces at the end of 2006. Since then the fighting has severely affected the SOS families and staff as well as the SOS infrastructure: several colleagues and one former SOS child died by stray bullets and mortars, some colleagues and SOS youth were seriously injured.
The SOS facilities were even occupied for several days, after that a long serving colleague was found dead on the SOS site.
Following heavy bombardment of the SOS compound and the neighbourhood early December 2007 all SOS families were evacuated and brought to other places in Mogadishu considered to be relatively safe. At the same time the SOS Mother and Child Clinic, the SOS Pediatric Hospital, the SOS Kindergarten, the SOS Hermann Gmeiner School and the SOS Nurse Training School also had to be closed for security reasons. The hospitals reopened in March 2008 and a satellite clinic at Afgoye, 22 km outside Mogadishu, was established in order to offer medical services to the many people who cannot come to Mogadishu. In August, a similar clinic in Baidoa Town was opened. The school and the training centre also were reopened in a rented factory building in another part of Mogadishu. In October 2008 both facilities had to be closed again as the lives of several teachers and other staff had been threatened.
Luckily the security situation in Mogadishu started to unfold and after a thorough evaluation of the situation it was decided to bring the Children’s Village alive again. 21st of February 2009 was a fortunate day for the SOS families in Mogadishu as they could move back into the SOS Children’s Village. In addition, the Nursing School was reopened in March 2009. In June 2009 the clinic in Agoye will be handed over to a local women’s organisation, as the hospital can be accessed again by the people in need.
At present there are one SOS Children's Village, one SOS Youth Facility, one SOS Kindergarten (operation suspended), one SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, one SOS Vocational Training Centre, one SOS Medical Centre and one SOS Emergency Programme in Somalia.
Contact:
SOS Somalia National Office
Buruburu phase 1
Oleleshwa cresent
Nairobi
Kenya
Tel: +254 20 782104
+254 20 782423
Fax: +254 20 789744