As I walk up to the shop, I immediately notice the smiling face behind the shops stall. Mustafa, was a graduate of the core life skills program in 2019. He tells us his story by explaining how the program helped him own his own business. My dream was to always be a journalist and was...
Every morning at 8:00 a.m. Halima Ibrahim prepares for her usual rounds of trekking from house to house selling Baati and Garbasaar – a traditional Somali cotton dress and head scarf. This has been her daily routine since she first set foot in Malawle,IDP camp in the capital of Somaliland, Hargeisa, more than two years...
In this small universe, life teaches people many lessons and these can sometimes be seen as harsh or unfair to some. This is the story of Sahra; a mother of six who is in her mid-30s and disabled. Sahra and her family used to live in very hard conditions as her husband did not have...
Hodan, is a 23 year old with 10 siblings and lives in Faluuja (ayah 2). Her mother was the breadwinner of the family and her father had a chronic illness and never worked. Although her family were living in difficult conditions, her mother always encouraged Hamda and her siblings to carry on studying no matter...
Muna*, 10, came close to losing her dream because her mother could not take her to school. When children her age went to the village school smartly dressed in their uniforms, Muna stayed at home helping her mother with house chores. Sometimes she played alone. “I felt desperate and asked my mother when I would...
Hodan is a mother with overwhelming passion and an appetite for success. Since her husband died in a car accident in 2008, Hodan has been providing for two families – her own five children and five grandchildren orphaned after her son and his wife passed away. She earns a living from a grocery stall, a...
SOS Children’s Villages is boosting resources allocated to child safeguarding in high-risk environments to create a safer environment for children and young people. While nearly all countries in the world have pledged to protect children from all forms of violence and abuse by ratifying the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, many have...
As SOS Children’s Villages continue to roll out its Safeguarding Action Plan for 2021-24, SOS Children’s Villages has been soliciting comments from young people on how best to tackle some of the issues raised in the latest Child Safeguarding Annual Report. Interviews with young people for a newly launched ‘Safe Behaviours’ project – aimed at preventing peer-on-peer violence among children –revealed that better understanding, education and...
SOS Children’s Villages has made progress on its Safeguarding Action Plan since its launch in June 2021. The plan, available on our safeguarding info hub, aims to address key learnings of recent years, including those gained through our commissioning of the Independent Child Safeguarding Review. The organization is releasing today an interim progress report that summarizes our progress particularly in eight prioritized actions:...