[ti:Mother, Son Team Up to Fight Somalia Poverty]
[ar:Christopher Cruise]
[al:Education Report]
[by:www.21voa.com]
[00:00.00]This is the Education Report.
[00:03.07]Sahnun Mohamud has never lived in Somalia,
[00:08.07]but the 21-year-old student has help established
[00:12.77]an organization that supports aid projects
[00:16.37]for the east-African country.
[00:18.87]Sahnun Mohamud is a co-founder and director of a group
[00:25.03]called Students for Somalia.
[00:27.89]He is following the humanitarian example of his mother.
[00:32.68]Mr Mohamud attends William & Mary College
[00:37.64]in Williamsburg, Virginia.
[00:39.70]It is a long way from Somalia.
[00:43.81]However, that coastal nation is home to many of his relatives.
[00:50.09]His parents were born there.
[00:52.45]His mother, Filsan Darman helped start
[00:57.38]the non-profit agency Aadamiga Somalia,
[01:00.58]it provided for aid to Somalia in 1987.
[01:05.89]Filsan Darman said the agency provided food
[01:10.20]and clothing to Somali people.
[01:12.80]They had flet to the Somali capital Mogadishu
[01:16.83]to escape variance in the North.
[01:20.07]Sahnun Mohamud phrased his mother's service,
[01:24.53]"She's been helping Somalia since before I was born."
[01:29.64]Mr Mohamud became involved in Humanitarian projects early in life.
[01:37.14]One of his goals for starting Students for Somalia
[01:41.01]was to get more non-Somalis to take part in helping Somalia.
[01:46.63]He noted that many Somali aid organizations have only Somali members.
[01:53.84]"So my group and my whole motto has been let's
[01:58.41]let every ethnicity and race help Somalia.
[02:00.41]I think it's a huge resource
[02:03.24]to have non-somali people helping Somalia," said Mohamud.
[02:05.44]This year, Students for Somalia and Aadamiga
[02:09.94]are cooperating on a project to fight poverty and increase education.
[02:16.77]Mr Mohamud said the groups loan money to women
[02:20.82]who have lived a long time in refugee camps in Mogadishu.
[02:26.14]They use the money to start or support businesses like small food stores.
[02:33.40]The woman must have a child in school in Somalia to receive the money.
[02:39.28]The loans are small, from 100 dollars to 500 dollars.
[02:45.34]The women must keep her child in school as a loan condition.
[02:51.05]She also must pay back the loan,
[02:54.11]but Mr Mohamud says the woman does not return the loan money to the lender.
[03:00.73]Instead, she gives it to her child's school.
[03:05.54]That way, he says, the school can make improvements.
[03:10.10]"So it's really about education and keeping kids in school," said Mohamud.
[03:14.66]Mr Mohamud says Students for Somalia centers its efforts on education.
[03:22.02]He says education provides a long lasting solution
[03:26.23]to most of the country's problems.
[03:28.98]He says young people will not have to leave school to work
[03:33.78]if their mother's businesses are successful.
[03:37.59]He also believes it will help prevent them
[03:41.05]from becoming child soldiers for armed groups.
[03:45.72]And that's the VOA Learning English Education Report,
[03:50.68]I'm Christopher Cruise.
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