Africa

Burkina Faso

'Who are these people who are angry with us?'

November 11 2020 - Armed violence has displaced more than a million people in Burkina Faso — half of them this year alone.  Khadidja*, 12, and her family abandoned everything overnight, leaving behind the home where they had always lived.

Somalia

The identity crisis effect on mental health in Somalia

November 6 2020 - Hassan Muhammed, 27, was a street boy before he found a family to give him a home at SOS Children’s Village in Somalia. But like many parentless children, Hassan had to wrestle with his identity as a young man in Somali society – a question that can lead later to mental and behavioural problems.

Youth participation

Youth promotes online counselling technology

October 12 2020 - Moses Aiyenuro, 23, wants mental health support to be as accessible as an app on a smartphone. With the help of peers on the SOS Children’s Villages International Youth Coalition, he is getting support to realize his ideas.

Nigeria

Siblings form new healthy memories despite childhood trauma

October 6 2020 - The painful memories of abuse Oba* suffered as a child often sneak into his consciousness, no matter his frantic efforts to bury them. “Therapy helped me identify the burning emotions from my childhood,” he says. “I was able to talk about the hurt, anger and self-hate that controlled me.”

Education

Digital divide puts education for millions of students at risk

September 1 2020 - Although online learning has worked for many children and young people around the world, those living in vulnerable conditions - with limited to no access to electricity and the internet, or whose schools lack the capacity to offer digital learning – risk missing out on their education for another academic year.

World Humanitarian Day

Healing the pain of displaced women and children in Somalia

August 18 2020 - Halima Ahmed Dalel works as a nurse at the SOS Children’s Village Mother and Child Clinic in Somalia. Her patients are mostly internally displaced women and children who live in IDP camps that surround the clinic. Their stories breaks her heart, but she remains motivated by the difference she makes in the lives of many families.