Reaching out to the community in Sheikh

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“Abdirahman Karie, from the HG Sheikh Secondary School, teaches English to the students of Sheikh Intermediate School.”

“Despite the state of the building and the fact that they are three to a desk, the students are very attentive.”

“The students leave school for the long journey home”

Reaching out to the community in Sheikh

Although the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Sheikh Secondary School in Somaliland has only been open since January this year, the staff is already assisting the local community with teaching support.

The town of Sheikh in Somaliland lies on a plateau at an altitude of 1400 metres and, because of its pleasant temperatures in an otherwise hot and dry landscape, has always been deemed suitable as a place of learning. Sheikh School was built in 1937 and was the first intermediate school in Somaliland. It was used to educate the surrounding community, some of whom went on to study at the secondary school built 20 years later (now the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Sheikh Secondary School).

The old school is, sadly, in a poor state of repair, having been neglected through almost thirty years of instability, including a nine year long civil war. However, whoever built the school did it well: it still has walls, floors and roofs, and with minimum repair work, funded by the UNHCR in 1996, the school is functioning again.

Twice a week six teachers from the new Hermann Gmeiner Sheikh Secondary School make the short trip to the intermediate school to give lessons in maths, English and Arabic. Government teachers in Somaliland are paid less than US$ 50 per month, so it is understandable if they prefer to teach in private schools, where they earn more. The teachers from the SOS Hermann Gmeiner School use their skills, at no cost to the community, to supplement the few government teachers at Sheikh school.

Students are all ears:

Classes at the school are large, with three students seated at desks that normally seat two. The classroom is obviously old, with cracks in the walls and rubble on the cement floor. But the building is sound and the original blackboard is still in place. Some of the 37 students look older than expected, at least 20, and are already married, but the average age is 17, with only four girls.

Despite leaving home at 6 am, to arrive at school at 7.00, the students are attentive, lapping up the English and math’s lessons given by Somali teachers Abdirahman Karie and Adan Musa. They answer questions politely, never speak unless spoken to and are all ears – a teacher’s dream in fact. Having missed out on education while the school was closed, these young people have been given a second chance and are grabbing it with both hands. “It’s the least we can do for the community”, says Karie, who is the headmaster at the SOS Hermann Gmeiner Sheikh School, and having come from Mogadishu, knows better than most the effects of war.

There are many obvious benefits from sharing teaching resources. The community gains well qualified and committed teachers, the students reap the rewards of that assistance, and SOS is welcomed and accepted by the community. In the words of the deputy mayor of Sheikh: “We welcome SOS to the school because they give us the support we need”.

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