Education in Emergencies (EiE) for drought affected children in North Mudug region of Puntland Education in Emergencies (EiE) for drought affected children in Mudug is a 6 months’ intervention targeting a total of 30 primary schools with the goal of retaining 4,000 students enrolled in these schools. Of the 30 schools, 5 are Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) schools affected by the 2016 Galkacayo conflict between Puntland and Galmudug states while the 25 are schools in rural drought affected areas of Mudug region. Particularly, the project will be implemented in the drought-hit rural areas of Gar’ad, Harfo, Jariban, Galkacayo and Galdogob district of Mudug region of Puntland. The project will start in 15th March and end on 15th Sept. 2017

The project is focused on retaining 4000 children in these drought-hit schools through emergency feeding support ,safe drinking water provision to the students, hygiene promotion campaigns to minimize the risk of Acute Watery Diarrhea (AWD) / Cholera, construction of water storage points, support to the Community Education Committees (CECs) on water management, provision of incentives for teachers and head teachers and the  provision of teaching and learning materials. The provision of water to schools will be done in accordance with Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) cluster standards and all water trucking to schools will be coordinated with the on-going NRC and other organizations’ WASH interventions in the target areas. 

In addition to the 4000 students, the project will also support 93 teachers and 30 head teachers and 140 water management committees. NRC in collaboration with the Community Education Committees (CECs) and the education authorities will conduct regular community mobilization, sensitization and back to school campaigns in order to track and bring back the drop out children back to the schools and retain the other students at risk of drop out. The project will advocate for the use of local resources to support the schools during the crisis. The communities will be supported to develop disaster response to enable them mitigate against such future risks.

The combined effect of conflicts and drought have had a devastating impact on the education sector in Somalia leading to increased dropout, decreased attendance and temporary closure of schools in certain areas. This project is designed to provide necessary support for the target schools and strengthen the existing community structures to keep the schools open, retain the learners and bring the dropped out students back to the schools. Since the drought has affected all the operation activities in schools that have led to drop outs, catch up classes will be organized for the students during the 2nd half of May, June and 1st half of July so that they cover missed classes and sit for the final exam of the academic year. Therefore, all schools that are targeted in this response will remain open during school vacations.
 
The project will be directly implemented by NRC in collaboration with the education authorities and education actors in these regions. A comprehensive monitoring framework will be developed for the project and regular information including attendance, drop out will be collected, analyzed and shared. Success stories will be documented and shared with all stakeholders.