Some news from the somali community in South africa.

[Liqaye]

Aid agencies have been neglecting the problems facing refugee schoolchildren.

 

Of every 10 households within the 500- strong Somali refugee community in Mayfair, Johannesburg, up to eight are headed by women. Male relatives have either been killed or have gone missing in the war. In some cases, the women are abandoned by their husbands after they arrive here.

 

The responsibility of running a household and putting food in the mouths of their children is a far cry from their traditional role in native Somalia.

 

The meagre earnings of refugee women who spend their days hawking vegetables on street corners must be enough to buy food and pay rent. Now many of these women are being told they need to pay for their children's education as well.

 

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) convention relating to the status of refugees stipulates that contracting states must accord refugees favourable treatment in terms of access to education.

 

Though some schools with Somali refugee pupils have waived payment in return for parents assisting in various administrative duties, the issue of school fees for refugee schoolchildren is becoming increasingly worrying for their parents.

 

According to Abbas Yusuf Abdi, executive director of the Somali Association of South Africa, the responsibility of the payment of fees to schools accommodating refugee children should rest with the UNHCR, and its implementing partner in South Africa, the Jesuit Refugee Services (JRS).

 

"Maintaining the standard of the particular school makes payment of school fees a necessity, which the refugee organisations should realise."

 

Out of the hundreds of refugee children attending schools in Johannesburg, the JRS is paying school fees for fewer than half. Last year, it introduced a protocol that stipulated that refugees who are resident in the country for 18 months and more are no longer eligible for financial support from the service.

 

Yusuf bitterly refers to this as "cellphone assessment". He says that the JRS has been withholding aid to families found to be in possession of a cellphone - a vital tool for communicating with relatives and conducting business.

 

Many Somali refugee families, despite their poverty, have given small donations to Yusuf's association, to pay into the school account. Others have offered to work as voluntary watchmen at the school, or to do various jobs such as painting and furniture repair.

 

Fees are not the only problem facing refugee children at public schools.

 

The trauma of war faced by the children and their parents, coupled with language problems, has made it difficult for the children to be successfully integrated in the schools. In addition, there is the lack of permanency that comes with refugee life - parents may find work in another part of the country and withdraw their children in mid-term.

 

The grade one class at Crown Reef Primary has 20 Somali refugee pupils. Some are as old as 15 and have never been to school before. In addition, the children, most of whom saw relatives killed or fought in the war themselves, are transferring their trauma into uncontrollable behaviour in the classroom.

 

In one incident this week a teacher had to intervene to stop one of the children from cutting a fellow pupil with a pair of scissors. The behaviour of the children has been blamed on a lack of adequate trauma counselling for refugee children who have borne the brunt of war.

 

Many Somali parents are also finding it increasingly difficult to relate to their teenage children who attend public schools, where they are becoming "acculturised".

 

Muhammad Yusuf Nuh, reputedly one of the oldest Somalis living in Mayfair, laments the generation gap between himself and his son, Jamal (15), also attending Crown Reef Primary.

 

"In Somalia," he says, "I could never look my father in the eye. In fact, I don't even clearly remember the face of my father, because I was so respectful."

 

His son, he says, constantly shaking his head in disbelief, not only looks him in the eye, but answers back, and disagrees with him often.

 

Abbas Yusuf says that many Somali children have absorbed the Americanised culture of South Africa, which makes it difficult for their parents, who were brought up in strictly Islamic, traditionalist Somalia.

 

Crown Reef Primary, together with the nearby Task Academy, which also has many Somali refugee pupils, has introduced measures to assist the children. The governing body of Crown Reef Primary started an extra grade one class to accommodate the pupils, and offers extracurricular tuition to pupils, all at no cost.

 

Many Somali families feel the refugee organisations are not doing enough to help their school-going children, however.

 

For instance, says Yusuf, many children do not have a meal either before or after school because the aid agencies assume the family has enough money. The introduction of feeding schemes for the pupils, as well as the provision of trauma counselling facilities for both pupils and teachers, he says, should be a priority.

 

Co-operation with other NGOs, such as religious organisations, could also be a step towards alleviating the problem.

 

"Every refugee organisation in this country has a moral obligation to help refugees until they can take care of themselves," he said

 

Notice please who doles out the money to refugees?......i know it is a depressing article but one of local success stories will be coming up

[Coloow]

Liqaaye or anyone out there

 

Could you please PM me if there are some somali contacts in Durban!

 

Thanks

[Liqaye]

Enterprenuer maybe you should just PM i should have told you beforei changed my name from Ogun.

[Coloow]

Liqaaye LOL

 

true, but there could be other nomads in SA... so that is why I did not PM you....