Bartamaha (Nairobi):- At 16 and 17 years old, it is no surprise that Bashir Warsame and Sahnun Mohamud are focused on education. The direction of that focus, however, is what sets them apart from their Annandale High School classmates.

The two teens are working to establish an educational program in the West African coastal nation of Somalia, the birthplace of their parents and home to many of their relatives. The venture, Wake Up Somalia, seeks to help reestablish the country’s education system, which has been fractured by civil war.

“My parents told me they had a nice education system,” Bashir said. “There would actually be tourists coming to the beaches. But things fell apart; the education system crumbled because of the war.”

When launched, the program, which is named after the country’s national anthem, “Somalia Wake Up,” will consist of an online curriculum of math, science, reading and writing.

The teens hope to establish their first two pilot schools in September 2011. They also are raising money to buy laptops and projectors, which will be shipped to schools in the country. Each classroom would be provided with a laptop and projector so online or downloaded lessons could be shared in class. An online curriculum, they said, means that more students will have access and that classrooms can be set up almost anywhere.

“Our whole lives, we’ve always had a connection with our home country, even though we weren’t born there,” said Sahnun, a rising senior.

Added Bashir: “We started to look at different ways to help. We looked at different [nonprofit organizations], but they didn’t have anything with the end product we were looking for, which was to educate.”

Neither of the teens has visited the country, which has been plagued by violence and instability since its civil war began in the early 1990s.

“The reason we chose education [as a venture] is because we feel education is the only long-term solution that’s going to work, Sahnun said. “Our education program is going to feed the children in the schools. It’s going to help the economy.”

Most importantly, the teens said, the program could prevent children from being recruited as soldiers.

“The idea is, we get to them before they are at risk because — unfortunately — a lot of children are at risk of becoming child soldiers,” Sahnun said. “News reporters out of Somalia have recorded children as young as 8 years old were being recruited by warlords and being armed with [assault rifles]. Parents in these reports have said the lack of schools and other activities was making prevention difficult.”

Finding backers for the venture has been a tough sell, the teens said, until recently. A call to Free World U, an online nonprofit that provides K-12 educational services to 20,000 students in 96 countries, has accelerated Wake Up Somalia’s efforts.

“We decided to get involved with Wake Up Somalia because our missions are very similar,” said Free World U founder David A. Hall. Bashir and Sahnun “are doing this not to make money, but rather to see a better world. Our involvement will be to add teaching material, translated from English into Somali. They will provide the translation, and we will provide software to enable them to add their translated material.”

Hall said the project is unique, which is another reason why it gained his interest.

“We have not seen projects like this before but anticipate that they will come in the future, similar to Wikipedia,” Hall said. Free World U “is to education what Wikipedia is to an online encyclopedia.”

The teens have raised about $4,000 for their cause, $600 of which came from a Loudoun County-based Rotary Club. Smaller donations have come from community members, friends and family.

Current funding will be used to raise awareness and more money for the program.

The pair also are looking for translators who can translate the English curriculum into Somali.

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Source:-Washington Post.

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