OBJECTIVE
OF THE ORGANIZATION
"
It takes a village to raise a child": An African Proverb
The
primary objective of the organization is to develop positive programs for
children and youth in order to discourage them from joining militias and
taking up arms. Children in Somalia have became a valuable
"commodity" for the various warlords that are engaged in a
continuing and senseless civil war as these warlords force them into their
militias with a promise of paying them money and other looted properties.
Nowadays,
even though there is a government, children are still experiencing the
terror of the war since there is an intermittent war between the TFG (
Transitional Federal Government) and remnants of the Islamic Court.
According
to a study we conducted in Mogadishu with other local NGOs, the age group
of these child soldiers range from 8-16; the majority of them are orphans
who lost at least one parent to the civil war and many of them come from
destituted families. Thus,because they have no any other means of securing
a living for themselves and for their families, militia life becomes all
the more attractive to these children, specially in a society where there
are no employers to work for, no schools to attend and no functioning
government to turn to for protection and also for social assistance.
In
order to restore a sense of humanity to these children and lure them away
from the senseless atrocities they are continuously exposed to, it is
imperative that we help derecruit them from the militias and strip the guns
out of the hands of these youngsters. If we don't, this will remain a
necessity of survival for them and the cycle will continue indefinitely.
( It is the children, stupid!).
The
project " Guns for dollars" introduced by the UNDP couldn't work
because of the high investment it required, since there is an ocean of
weapons in Somalia. Perhaps taking an educational approach and creating
jobs would be a logical alternative and that is the areas where our
organization would model our projects on.
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.
