Capital: Hargeisa
Area: 137,600 km²
Population: 3.5 million
Official language(s): Somali, Arabic and English
Religion(s): Sunni Islam
SOS Children's Villages' activities in the country
In the late 1990s SOS Children’s Villages decided to start operating in Somaliland, a former British protectorate in the north-western part of Somalia, after having run a village and several ancillary SOS facilities in Mogadishu since 1983. Somaliland had declared independence from Somalia in 1991. Three years later the armed conflicts with Somalia could be terminated and since then the country has been enjoying peace and has managed to establish itself as a model of stability and good governance. Up to now Somaliland has not yet been officially recognized, a fact that impeded the access to external aid. Despite the international isolation that has been breaking up very slowly during the past few years, the reconstruction of the country is in full swing and it is hardly affected by the continuous turmoil in the south of Somalia.
In 1999 the president of Somaliland Mohammed Egal and SOS-Kinderdorf International signed an agreement. SOS Children's Villages has participated in the reconstruction in the educational field by renovating a secondary school in Sheikh, a small town 90 km south of the port of Berbera. In 1950 the school had been erected and operated by the British colonial power. It had been one of the most renowned and best schools in British Somaliland and, after gaining independence and merging with Italian Somaliland, throughout Somalia. The SOS Hermann Gmeiner Secondary School in Sheikh serves as a model school again and has been offering education for 240 youths, both day and resident students from all parts of the country.
A considerable part of the medical and social infrastructure that was destroyed in the armed conflicts between 1980 and 1994 still has to be rebuilt. SOS Children’s Villages decided to further commit itself in Somaliland and to help abandoned children and the needy population in the capital city Hargeisa. In June 2008 the construction of Somaliland’s first SOS Children’s Village, an SOS Kindergarten, an SOS Social Centre (Family Strengthening Programme) and an SOS Medical Centre was completed.
The Family Strengthening Programme enables children who are at risk of losing the care of their family to grow within a caring family environment. To achieve this, SOS Children’s Villages works directly with families and communities to empower them to effectively protect and care for their children, in cooperation with local authorities and other service providers. Moreover, in Berbera, a new Medical Centre started to operate in 2008. In April 2010 the new SOS Social Centre (Family Strengthening Programme) in Berbera started its operations.
At present there are one SOS Children's Village, one SOS Kindergarten, one SOS Hermann Gmeiner School, two SOS Social Centres and two SOS Medical Centres in Somaliland.
Website of SOS Children's Villages Somaliland
(available in English)