Mariam Dini's World

  The biggest and most expensive weapon a country has is the youth especially when young people have received equal educational opportunities. Expressing your experiences, abilities, skills, and ideas is what contributes to change. Every positive change brings prosperity.  Young people in Somalia are not just the future of the country; they are also the majority. Nearly three-quarters of the population is under 30 years old. Most are born after the overthrow of the Siad Barre regime in 1991 and have only known conflict and violence. An entire generation has missed out on education, employment, and knowing what a stable life is. Many lost hope for a better future. When it comes to education, Somalia has one of the lowest enrolment rates in the world. A survey showed that in Somalia overall, 27 percent of youth aged 14-29 have not completed any type of school, 25 percent attended a Koranic school, 27 percent attended Primary school, and 21percent went to secondary school or above.

Every time you start a new activity in the community, especially when you are practicing some skills that are not common for girls, you will face a lot of pressure from different sections of the society, particularly in a country where girls are traditionally not allowed to do some of the things men do. It is quite common for our people to try to discourage you from gaining certain knowledge if you are a girl. Fatima Aweis Osman, a young girl born in Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, is an artist who first returned to Mogadishu in 2015. She started her education journey in Saudi Arabia but finished high school in Mogadishu. Fatima's family did not have any art background and it was not something she went to school to learn. “My family did not have an art background, and I did not have a place to study. It would have been nice if I had that opportunity but there was no art center, it was only something I loved”. She noted. “One day, our teacher brought us an art painting for the first

I was surprised to see children being sold weapons to celebrate their Eid holidays. The opportunity to study saved my life. The most important thing people are expected to focus on is education, especially the education of children growing up in war zones. We are a nation that nurtures its children with weapons made during the festive season, especially on holidays. Millions of children in Somalia are out of school. Children living with disabilities face even more challenges and adolescent girls are seldom able to complete secondary education. Children in nomadic pastoralist communities are constantly on the move and often denied their rights to an education. When children go to school, they are rarely able to benefit from it fully. Classrooms are often overcrowded, water and sanitation facilities are inadequate, and trained teachers and school books are hard to come by. The poor quality education is reflected in students’ results. Children living with disabilities face even more