SEPDO’s Child Mentorship and Education Program is the organization’s longest running project. Rooted with the understanding that a country is only as great as its children, the aim of this project is to increase the number of educated children in Somaliland. At the start of this project, SEPDO, on a voluntary basis, approached families in low income neighborhoods to find children who were not attending schools. SEPDO’s target group were children between the ages of 6 to 15 years of age. To better work with state institutions, SEPDO gained the approval of Somaliland’s Ministry of Employment, Social Affairs and Family to proceed with their project to have these children admitted into the public primary schools in Hargeisa. SEPDO’s first cohort was made up of 26 children (15 girls and 11 boys) and the second group, 29 (16 girls and 13 boys).
In the first group, SEPDO managed to place all of the students into schools however this project had many challenges due to the fact that since these students came from low-income families, many families could not afford keeping their children in schools. Even with scholarships, most families have a difficult time purchasing student uniforms and books for their children. To better support the children’s needs, SEPDO founders and staff consistently try to collect their own personal funds together to purchase school materials for the children.
