Capital: Mogadishu
Area: 637,66 km²
Population: 8,6 million (July 2005)
Ethnic groups: Somali, Bantu
Official language(s): Somali
Religion(s): Sunni Islam
Currency: 1 Somali shilling = 100 cents
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
The initiatives of SOS Children's Villages in Somalia began in 1983 with the signing of a government agreement. A property provided by the government in the capital of Mogadishu was chosen as the construction site for the first SOS Children's Village and its adjoining kindergarten. In subsequent years a school, a youth facility and a mother and child clinic were established on the same property. When the civil war broke out in 1990, SOS Children's Villages started a major medical emergency relief and food programme. The SOS Hermann Gmeiner School was converted into an emergency clinic where adults and children injured in the war were cared for, and the mother and child clinic became part of the emergency relief programme. To date it remains the only functioning maternity ward and gynaecological care facility in the country. In order to provide SOS as well as other interested youths in Somalia with a professional training, the SOS Vocational Training Centre offers a three-year state-approved training for nurses or midwives.
For many years SOS Children's Villages was the only international relief organization that was active in the south of the country. As opposed to the rest of the country, Somaliland, the northern part of Somalia which was a former British colony that became independent in 1991 but has not yet been internationally recognized as an independent state, there has been peace and security since 1994, and today the reconstruction of the country is in full swing. SOS Children's Villages has participated in the reconstruction in the educational field by renovating a secondary school in Sheik and making it operational again. In 1999 the government of Somaliland and SOS-Kinderdorf International signed an agreement.
At present there are one SOS Children's Village, one SOS Youth Facility, one SOS Kindergarten, two SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, one SOS Vocational Training Centre, one SOS Medical Centre and one SOS Emergency Programme in Somalia.
Contact:
SOS Somalia National Office
c/o Regional Office for East Africa
PO Box 511
00606
Nairobi
Kenya
Tel: +254 20 782104
+254 20 782423
Fax: +254 20 789744