Cesvi offers food, shelter, education and psychosocial support to those children who are victims of hunger and conflict.
MOGADISHU, Somalia - For hundreds of thousands of displaced Somali children, daily life is a mixture of fear and insecurity. Communities break apart, as one by one families leave their villages to flee ongoing conflict. If they survive the journey to Mogadishu, life is not much easier, as they are faced with the daily challenge of finding food and shelter.
For children, this experience can be traumatizing. Having fled their homes in search of safety, they find themselves in overcrowded camps, away from all they know.
“They have faced a lot of problems on the way while fleeing”, said Omar Ahmed, who works with Unicef partner NGO Cesvi at what is called a Child Friendly Space in the Somali Capital. “So first we interview the children to see what problems they might have had, then we register them, and if it looks like they need it, we refer them to other health services.”
The Child Friendly Space where Mr. Ahmed works is located in a cluster of small white tents that are nestled between Mogadishu’s bullet ridden walls. Together, they provide a safe space for over 200 children.
Here the children receive basic food support through on-sight snacks and desperately needed water and sanitation services. Education is a big part of the daily programme as well, and essential literacy and numeracy classes are available to all children. But more than that, these children get to play.
Each Child Friendly Space has facilitators from the NGO partners who work with the children. Several of the partners also have social workers to help identify and refer children in need of care and protection to the appropriate services.
While most children arrive in the displaced camps with their families, some are tragically separated from their parents and are either left to fend for themselves or forced to rely on already overburdened community members.
For these youngsters, access to a Child Friendly Space means they still get to be kids, even when surrounded by the ravages of hunger, conflict and chaos.
