Civil war in Somalia caused the government to collapse and the educational system to crash, leaving children without a solid foundation for the future.
Somalis living in the U.S. hope to rebuild the educational system in the eastern African nation by opening schools in their homeland.
The Columbus chapter of the Texas-based Somali Development Foundation will hold a fundraiser dinner at 5 tonight at the Capital Cafe, 3296 Westerville Rd. Tickets are $20.
The group plans to open three high schools in Somalia in the next two years, said national board member Abdinur Ali, of Kansas City, Mo. About $150,000 will be needed to build the schools, he said.
The push to enhance education is essential to rebuilding the country, which erupted in civil war in 1991, Ali said.
Last year, 13 percent of boys in Somalia were enrolled in primary school along with 7 percent of girls, according to UNICEF.
"We don’t have hospitals because we don’t have doctors," Ali said. "We don’t have a good water system because we don’t have engineers. You have to have the human resources to build those institutions. If you don’t have the qualified staff, it will fall apart."
The group raised $7,000 at last year’s dinner, Ali said.
Tonight’s speaker will be Ali Khalif Galaydh, former prime minister of Somalia and visiting professor at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
The Somali Development Foundation was formed last year by a coalition of groups working to rebuild the country’s educational system, Ali said. Chapters are in Columbus, Kansas City and Ottawa, Canada.
Separately, the groups have already opened a high school and elementary school in Somalia, Ali said, and reopened an elementary school.
The foundation wants to open a university in Somalia in the next four years, Ali said.
Although Somalia has no stable government, Somalis in America have successfully built schools there, he said.
Columbus has the secondlargest Somali population in America, with an estimated 45,000.
Funds raised for the schools will be held in an account in the U.S. and disbursed to Somalia as needed for various phases of the project, Ali said, including purchasing land and construction.
Financial records are being kept to make sure donors can track their dollars, Ali said.
Somalis in Columbus are excited about the effort because the schools can help empower the next generation, said Mohamed Dini, spokesman for the local chapter.
"They have felt the heat of ignorance," he said. "So anything to teach them, they are willing to take on."
[email protected]
Source: Columbus Dispatch, Nov 25, 2006