Giving Back in Somalia

Written by Yussuf Hassan Abdullahi, a DD Puri SCORE Kenya programme graduate. Yussuf is now a successful water engineer in Somalia. Read his powerful words below.

In 1991, my family fled the war, violence and drought in Somalia and ended up finding refuge in Kenya’s Dadaab Refugee Camp-Hagadera. It was the world’s largest refugee camp made up of a constellation of tents and huts stretching across the red desert near the Somali border.

Here I was, a young boy, with no education but with a determined spirit, living in the world’s largest refugee camp. There were no luxuries like books to read, TV’s, Computers or even internet connectivity.

With a fiery spirit, I enrolled for my Primary Education in 2000 aged 8 years. I was overage to have enrolled at pre-unit level at that age but was determined to get an education.

8 years later and despite the many challenges, I sat my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education attaining 291 Marks out of a possible 500.This enabled me to join a community secondary school within the camp in 2009 which required us to pay KES 1800 per term. It was a reprieve for my struggling parents when the school was taken over by UNHCR two years later thus waiving off the financial burden of paying the school fees.

My hard work, persistence and determination paid off when results for the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) of the year 2012 were released. I had scored a mean grade of B-(Minus) making me a top student in the school. I was however disappointed that I missed the cut off grade to my dream of studying in Ivy League Canadian Universities by a whisker. At that point, I knew I had to find a new dream!

What next?

When your dream dies, you are not sure of what to do next. Something that once filled me with excitement and passion had become a burden. It was time to find a new dream. These challenges are inevitable in life.

Finding that next thing to fill the void of the big dream proved to be a lot harder than I expected. I experienced grief, emptiness, and a total lack of direction. I felt I was wasting my life. Suddenly I had all this time in my hands that I could have used for other things, but I didn’t know what those other things were. Everything felt pointless. The big picture was missing.

Tertiary education opportunities were limited and competitive, yet I had a dream to keep alive. It’s so weird. When I was in school, I couldn’t wait to graduate and have a break. To just be free and not have to worry about exams and waking up early in the morning. Now that i was not in school anymore, now that I finally had that break, I oddly missed it so much. I missed learning, i missed feeling productive, i missed feeling motivated, I missed being surrounded by other like- minded individuals, I missed living with my friends.

At this point, I had also realized that my community and fellow students needed me. Schools lacked adequate teaching and learning resources and it was time to step in and make a contribution.

I therefore applied to teach Mathematics and Chemistry at my former school, Waberi Secondary School and was appointed after a successful interview. I became first alumni of the school to come back as a teacher and this was really motivating to not just me but other students as well.

I was a proud teacher at the school from February 2013 to 2015, teaching, mentoring and nurturing young refugee boys and girls.

I was happy that I could support my family and siblings with my monthly salary stipend. The harsh reality however was that I could not afford to sponsor myself to university. Refugee education scholarships were therefore my only hope.

A young Yussuf as a Secondary School student (right) and providing clean water and sanitation services in Somalia (left).

Between 2014 and 2015, I applied for different refugee tertiary education scholarships and for some, on a repeat basis. How could I give up if this was the only way out?

In 2015, I heard about the DD Puri Foundation SCORE project scholarships implemented by Windle International Kenya. I was excited to know about this new scholarship programme and decided to apply.

We would later learn that the scholarship could only support 3 students from Dadaab Refugee Camp for that year. This was discouraging because there were hundreds of refugees that had applied. I still attended the scholarship interview, giving it my best and hopeful to beat the odds.

A new lease of Life: Getting College Education

How refreshing! I emerged the best student from the scholarship interviews in Hagadera refugee camp, having demonstrated academic potential and strong involvement in community work. Finally, the dream that had seemed so elusive was now a reality.

I was offered to study Diploma in Water Engineering. I saw myself solving water problems and training vulnerable families on good hygiene practices. At the Kenya Water Institute, Nairobi Campus, this journey would begin in January 2016.

With the scholarship, there was nothing to think about other than working hard to excel in the course. However, it was challenging being away from family, adjusting to a new environment not forgetting the demands of the hands-on-training. This is where WIK came in, offering us all the necessary support we needed, from financial to mental and emotional support.

In September 20th 2019, the journey would culminate in a colorful graduation ceremony at the institution, albeit in absentia. I scored a Credit and came top 10 in the Water Engineering class of 2019 out of 304 graduands. I had hoped to get a distinction which I again missed narrowly. I was nonetheless very proud of this achievement and the overall experience as a tertiary scholar that had been enriched by other exciting opportunities that I got to have such as being elected a student leader and chaperoning the DD Puri Foundation Students Organization(DD PUSO).

With the skills and quality training, I was now ready to serve my community back in my home Country of Somalia. I was able to secure a job at Alight, formerly American Refugee Council, starting as a Water and Sanitation Technician from November 2018 to January 2020.I have also worked as a Borehole drilling Supervisor for Save the Children and a WASH and Shelter Engineer with WRSSS. Currently, I am a WASH Engineer at Alight as from August 2021 overseeing projects in South and Central Somalia.

Employment has accorded me the opportunity to serve my community by providing assistance in the WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) sector where there are serious gaps/needs in regards to access to safe water, proper sanitation and hygiene. As part of my duty, i monitor water quality, construction of water points and water storage tanks and capacity building to water users. It is a challenge of its own working in Mogadishu as a humanitarian worker owing to the risks associated with the on- going conflicts. I would say the spirit of resilience and giving back to the community that was inculcated into us as WIK scholars plays a big role in maintaining the drive to work under such precarious circumstances.

A CEO and Founder of a Non-Profit Organization

Charity is contagious. As a WIK alumnus, I strongly feel that the biggest thank you to say to the donors that supported our education dreams is to also positively impact the lives of other people around us.

At Save Life Trust Africa (SLTA) where I am the CEO and Co-founder, we support education projects in Lower Juba Province of Somalia to meet the needs of the increasing vulnerable children in Somalia who have been affected by the current conflict and natural disasters so as to enable them to attain their full potential and enjoy the basic human rights. We achieve this by facilitating availability of quality teaching and learning resources for learners, creating community awareness on the importance of education among other interventions.

With students of Hosingo Primary School in Lower Juba Province in Somalia, beneficiaries of SLTA interventions.