Support to quality basic Education for Drought affected children in Hiran region This project will address the needs of 9 drought-affected schools and 3,500 girls and boys at risk of dropping out. Schools will be supported to keep children in school, and to support drought-affected children through the crisis. Schools will also be utilized as essential platforms for meeting the basic needs of young people, including water and food. 

With general poor performance of Gu and Deyr rain season of 2016 in Somalia. The resultant drought had severely affected conditions of pasture, crops and water availability resulting in the migration of pastoralists from the affected areas. UN OCHA led inter cluster assessment conducted in December, 2016 in the region, revealed an estimated population of 10,000 pastoralists who migrated into Hiran region. The harvests for farming communities were poor for cereals due to low rainfall. Similarly, livestock deaths had also been witnessed in some areas. The drought impact on education is also already felt in the shrinking enrolment due to dropout of learners as a result of families’ migration in search for food, water and pasture elsewhere. The most critical needs include lack of clean, safe drinking water, poor hygiene and sanitation condition, school dropout among others. Children, especially the girl child is forced to move a long distance with their parents in search of water and food for the family, leading to high rate of drop out for the girls compared to the boys.
Many drought-affected children end up displaced in new locations (schools) without adequate teaching-learning materials,. The massive displacement of children in the new locations means additional pressure on the already over stretched host schools facilities like classrooms and hygiene and sanitation facilities.

The Local authorities in Beletweyne reported 1,150 households (6,900 individuals) arriving in major towns including Beletweyne since Dec 2016. Further displacement is anticipated if intervention is delayed and the drought continues. Based on FSNAU recent reports, an estimated 14,000 IDPs are in Crisis (IPC 3) and 3,000 in Emergency (IPC 4) food security. The Global Acute Malnutrition (GAM) rate in rural population is 15.3%, which is above the ‘Critical’ threshold, and a SAM rate is 4.1%. 

In addition, some of the schools in the pastoral and agro-pastoral zones are already experience low enrollment due to migration as a result of the current severe drought impacts. Schools in the worst hit areas had already reported rapid decline in attendance of pupils and teachers. Statistically, approximately 3500 school enrolled in SC supported schools other schools in Hiran region are increasingly facing the risk of children dropping out of school due to severity of the current drought and the resultant migration. The low enrollment rate in south Somalia therefore calls for an urgent need to intervene to retain these children in the schools especially with research showing that children who drop out of school due to emergencies will most likely not return to school after the emergency. In line with Somalia education cluster objectives and SHF funding strategy, the proposed intervention will provide life-saving assistance in response to drought situation working with existing community structures like community education committees (CECs) and child welfare committee (CWCs) to ensure the drought affected children continue learning in a protected learning environment through: provision of school feeding programme, recreational facilities, critical basic services, the much needed safe drinking water, building the capacity of the school managers and as well construction of temporary learning spaces for additional IDP children.