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SAMODHEEG SCHOOL FOR THE DEAF Tel: +2521219813, e-Mail: samodheeg@yahoo.com, SHIBIS, SOMALIA SCHOOL PROFILE
The front view of the school
1.0 Introduction The word SAMODHEEG, which was initiated by Prof Yahya Amir, means to hear nice things only. The professor is one of the SCC board members and dean of faculty of economics of University of Mogadishu. The school was officially opened in March 2008 by Somali Community Concern with the support of Muslim Aid UK – Somalia field office in Mogadishu and Somali Diaspora in Europe providing School equipment and lap of computers for the students. It is the first time that such school is ever opened in Mogadishu and its surrounding areas. The objective of the school was to enhance the moral, support of deaf children who hadn’t had access to education so far in Somalia since the collapsed Somali government in 1991 and give support to the parents and school teachers through trainings and awareness-raising to develop skills to handle the deaf kids carefully and tactfully. SCC organized a well attended ceremony on fund-raising activities on the continuation of the help and education for the deaf children in Somalia and a well structured Inaugural ceremony was held in one of the big hotels in Mogadishu and was invited to celebrity persons from LNGOs, INGOs, Mogadishu business groups and civil society organizations. The ceremony was intended to identify the role of deaf people in the society and their priority needs which include education and career development. The aim was also to put attention on how the Somali people could assist marginalized deaf children go to schools and study as normal children do. The participants highlighted the importance and neediness to educate the deaf children and challenges on deaf children. It was spotted that the recent conflicts in Mogadishu took the lives of so many deaf children. The casualties of these vulnerable groups were either caused by stray bullets or cross fire of the warring sides in the city for the deaf or the hard hearing cannot know which way is safe and which passage is dangerous to him or her. In addition to that, the participants showed sympathy and patience for the deaf people. The school is located in BILAJO BARI Market of SHIBIS district in the direction of eastern side of Shibis market in Mogadishu. It was first of its kind of deaf school that was ever operated in south central Somalia since seventeenth years of unset of Somalia. The initiative of the school was from a result of a survey team of SCC to conduct interviews on some of IDP camps in Elasha and Arbiska areas of AFGOYE district in February 2008, the objective of the survey was to uncover the multidimensional of IDPs livelihood situations in the camps. The team reported back that most of IDP families ignored the rights of deaf children on access to education as other normal children, the teams found out from some of the respondents of a question related to the number of children in each family and if any of them went to school, parent after parent responded ‘we have 3 children and one deaf and all IDP families responded similarly saying ‘we have six children and two deaf. According to the appalling results from the data collection survey, SCC was in immediate plan to establish a school for the deaf children to chance free education and life skills trainings. In Mogadishu, a total of 3,200 children were estimated to be deaf or impaired hard of hearing by the effects of various aspects which include:
Deaf children who have no parents foster meet hardship situation, some of them have been killed by stray bullets and bomb explosions because their hearing is impaired and they lack the communication skills to ask other people the save passage and streets abandoned areas where as many people have escaped from the fighting. The residents of Mogadishu welcomed this initiative and they pledged to participate and contribute in-kind and cash to support the school.
Teachers are queuing students in the morning school assembly. 2.0 OBJECTIVES. The main objectives on the formation of the school for the deaf children include:
3.0 SCHOOL ACADEMY
Deaf students are attending Grade I in SAMODHEEG school, Mogadishu, Somalia. A very few number of enrolment was started in the school ranging 10 -15 students consisting of girls and boys of hard hearing and the deaf whose ages are 7 – 18 years old. Currently a total number of 72 students who are all deaf/ hard hearing are attending to three classes of different standards, 39 of them are boys and 33 are girls. The students are regarding lower primary levels comprising of three classes A, B and C. The classes are co-educated with total students in class A is 27(12 girls and 15 boys); in Class B, the students are 23 (9 girls and 14 boys) and in class C, the students are 22 (11 boys and 11girls). The medium instruction of the school syllabus is English and other essential languages like: Somali and Arabic. In addition to the subjects of school are such Math, science, Somali language, English languages, drawing and Islamic studies in which most of the students study in Latin deaf sign language. The school has four classrooms, one office for head-teacher, computer lab for the students, store and two toilets (one for girls and other for boys). SCC role is to supervise the School, to form parent committee, engage in lobby and advocacy, finding donations through local & Diaspora fund-raising and developing projects meeting the current needs of the school running costs and administration costs. Currently, the school has parent committee of seven members selected from all parents of the school; the objective was to assist teachers and SCC office to solve mini-discrepancies between teachers and students, to provide back up to the students after the school for the preparation home works. The school parent committee feels now ownership of the school and they fully lead decision making process of the issues in relating to fictions and developing mechanisms of the school. The role of the parents committee includes information sharing, developing new ideas to develop the school and finding resource to run the school. The school timetable is scheduled to the following time: 07:30 AM – morning assembly of the students. 08:00: AM – starting the first period of the school which continues till 08:45 am etc. 12:15 pm – the school concludes morning shift class sessions and students are free to go home. There are five periods in daily performance for the school and each period is about 45 minutes for five days in the week. Thursday and Friday are off for weekend. The academic year of the School is nine months (Sept – May) of each year and there are two examination terms in every academic year for mid-term and final exams to close the school year. There are three months for vacation, giving refreshing courses to some of the students whose performance was low and giving refreshing trainings to the teachers. The syllabus of the school is mainly on courses for the deaf sign language particularly lower primary classes for the teaching mathematic numbers, deaf alphabetic and then words and in Science and languages. It is like going into upstairs or building blocks. 4.0 SCHOOL STAFF Following special needs concern of the deaf students, Somali Community Concern (SCC) which sponsored the school has recruited professional teachers who are trained and capable to teach these particularly needy children. The school has three teachers who are all graduates from accredited universities and has experience in teaching methodologies for the deaf students. The school has head-teacher who administers overall teaching activities and makes monthly reports to the SCC office, informing and detailing school daily routine, progresses or setback if there are any. Generally staff in the school consists of: one administrator, three teachers, a cleaner and two watchmen making shifts (Day and Night). The school is under the assistance and guidance of SCC but SAMODHEEG has its own administration in terms of teaching, parent committees, meetings, students and teachers. The school has hierarchal administration shown in the forming Organ-grams.
Abdullahi, English teacher explaining to the students English alphabets into deaf signs 5.0 SCHOOL ORGANOGRAM 
Somaliweyn Media Center “SMC”
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