Youth
Who We Are > Activities
The youth of any community are the future of their country. With a lack of central government in 1991 for more than two decades in Somalia and ongoing conflict, the younger generation were compelled to engage in violence, stay idle or migrate abroad. Problems facing the youth during this transitional period in Somalia have strong bearings on their future, especially given the primacy of their reproductive and productive years of life. The youth in Somalia were hard-hit by the impacts of the civil war that ravaged the country, often used and abused as militiamen, many dying in the process as others got ever battle-hardened as the most active players in the war. Deeply pre-occupied by the war, the majority of them lost opportunities for their socio - economic development like education. In particular, youth below 24-years of age have been the most affected age-group. Not only have they been systemically deprived of opportunities to services like education, they have been phenomenally manipulated and forced into becoming vessels for incessant hostilities between warring clans and political factions.
On top of the negative personality impacts and psycho-development these alone has on their lives, the unwitting participation of the youth in the Somali civil war is feared to make them, the most vulnerable group at high risks of infections by HIV/AIDs and other sexually-transmitted diseases.
Tadamun Social Society (TASS), in partnership with UNICEF, began supporting Somali youth in 2005 through empowerment projects. The objective was to reduce youth idleness, which encourages them to get involved in criminal activities, and instead push them to participate in local development.
Trainers of Trainers (TOT)
In 2006, the Trainers of Trainers (TOT) project was conducted in which some 878 youths benefited across villages and towns in the Puntland state of Somalia. A gender balance was sought with a record 42% female youths trained in leadership and life skills. The trainers offered the youth group members and their leaders insights into organisational management scenarios, life skills promoting their relationships, interactions and existence among peers and the wider society. Topics were deduced according to their groups' backgrounds in nature, type and capacity. Half the period was dedicated to mainly Leadership and Organisational Development (LOD) while the other half was left to Youth Peer Education (YPE) issues.
TASS facilitated various groups to be trained together, thus promoting cohesion and integration across villages and traditional boundaries. This also eased communication and information exchange and sharing of experiences in turn inculcating unity and fostering peace between different communities.
Youth Mentoring
In 2006, TASS implemented a mentoring programme for groups focusing on influencing youths positively through change in behaviour and attitudes. Mentors were assigned to check on the application of LOD training within their respective organisations. Generally, the essence of mentoring youth groups is to strengthen them so that they could perform their tasks efficiently and effectively. Pursuant to this goal, TASS's mentors have been involved in a multi-faceted youth mentorship programme throughout the North-East Zone (NEZ), covering a total of 60 youth organisations and groups, by giving on site mentoring, guidance, supervision and technical advisory services.
The programme focuses on transfer of skills, knowledge, attitudes and competencies vital to the youth to make them self-reliant, better decision makers as well as responsible members in the society. The mentors inspire ideas on protection of children rights and discourage abuses. Being role models, they go on to influence change in behaviour as well attitudes amongst their peers and society in general. With the youth groups, they root for best service provision through transparent management of affairs, accountability and strict adherence to rules and regulations. The mentors further trained their peers on group dynamics, e.g. management, leadership as well as organisation thereby injecting professionalism in the operation of the youth groups. The mentoring programme led to social benefits that included decline in school drop-out rates and delinquency, improvement in self-esteem and self-confidence and unity development.
Achievements:
- Youth engaged in several projects in their locality
- Youth groups were funded to teach skills to young people
- Youth in Puntland are now instrumental in leading local development.