Children at school in Canadaville Centre!
ACHIEVEMENTS
CANADAVILLE CENTRE
(We
named this centre after this great country of ours called
"Canada")
With
the association of a local relief agency "Guryasamo" and with the
help of an indigenous philantrophist "Dr. Maryan Yusuf Ali" we
have build an impromtu centre in a place called Mushani in the outskirts of
Afgoi, 40 km North of Mogadishu.
·
Guryasamo Organization is
implementing the project and Somali child soldier is providing the fund for
the project with the help of the Somali community living in North America
especially in Canada.
·
This centre is comprised of 2
large rooms (Dormitories), one large classroom (it has 7 wooden tables , 30
plastic chairs, one blackboard), 2 washrooms all of which are made of mud
and corrugated iron. This is home to 30 children gathered from the
surrounding areas aged 8-15.
·
The
primary aim here is to lure them away from the prevailing violence and the
consequent opportunity for recruitment into militia life. Besides providing
them shelter and education,we also give them food, medicine and security.
There is a cook, a teacher, a cleaner, and 2 security guards that work in
the centre on a regular basis. We have placed mattress on the floor for
them to sleep on,equipped with mosquito nets ( Mushani is very close to the
Shabelle River, and therefore any exposure to mosquitoes
can cause Malaria to humans.).
·
The meager operating funds
that permit us to run the project comes
exclusively from the Somali
diaspora and some of the wonderful people of Canada. Although our modest
funding comes from individual contributors, we cannot meet our projected
plan of sustaining a decent at-risk youth center without the input of
public and private corporations and companies.
We are very proud of the dedicated volunteers that have made this much a difference in a country that is wrecked by civil war, famine and human displacement over the last 17 years. We are also proud that this has been so far a true story of Somali's helping Somalis. Needless to say though, that this is also a project about our collective humanity and for that, contribution from members of all nationalities, religions, and cultures are the most welcome.
The project " Gun's
for dollars" introduced by the United Nations, couldn't work because of the
high investment it required, since there is an ocean of weapons in Somalia.
Prehaps taking an educational approach and creating jobs would be a logical
alternative.
