Feature: School offers hope for deaf children in Somalia

At Somali National Association of the Deaf School (SONAD), 150 students attend classes each day learning sign language and receiving formal education to enable them to compete with their able counterparts one day in the society.

Despite lack of adequate facilities, the school has been teaching deaf students for the last nine years since it was established in 2006.

"We founded this school in 2006 after we realized that deaf children were facing risks in society as everyone seemed to be struggling to make a living. Families did not know what to do with deaf children, so many of them were left on their own or neglected without any form of education or support," SONAD director Abdirizak Mohamed Abdullahi told Xinhua on Friday.

Abdullahi said the demand for deaf children education is very high in Mogadishu, yet there is no other school which can cater for such cases.

Despite lack of concrete statistics on the state of deaf children in Somalia, the Swedish Development Agency (SIDA) estimates that it is likely persons with disabilities add up to as much as 15-20 percent or more of the population.

Given the daily struggles in a country which has not known stability for over two decades and many people pre-occupied with basics of life while not sure of their security, the plight of deaf children becomes even the more disturbing.

"We have registered 500 students, but since we don't have enough facilities, we are forced to take in only 150," noted Abdullahi.

"SONAD has been in operation all these years, thanks to some Somali traders who have been supporting us to pay rent and other needs," Abdullahi said, adding that there is urgent need for more support to enable the school to take in the other students in the list.

The Horn of Africa nation ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in January, setting a course to improve the lives of its youngest citizens.

The Convention obliges governments to streamline the rights of its children in its national agenda with the aim of protecting them from among others, armed conflict and support through education to ensure they are fairly treated as equal members of society.

"Once the students learn the sign language, I am able to teach them a number of subjects based on our curriculum," said Abdinasir Mohamed, himself with partial hearing ability.

For Abdinasir, SONAD is a mission to rescue deaf students from the numerous risks they are exposed to in the society.

"We still need a lot of support to take in more students and buy more facilities for the centre so that we can continue supporting children with special needs," added Abdinasir.

Mohamed Abdi is looking forward to become a sign teacher, a dream best exemplified by his determination to master the language.

"I am happy to have got the chance to learn sign language here. I can now communicate and express myself without much difficult. My dream is to be a teacher one day so that I can be able to help many other deaf children in Mogadishu and Somalia at large," said the 12-year-old. Endit