Warnings that the crisis may lead to a "lost generation"
Millions of children in the Horn of Africa are at risk of being deprived of education due to drought
Some girls who drop out of school migrate with their families.
From the source
Drought forces families to leave their villages and prevents children from attending school.
From the source
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More than 3.5 million children are at risk of dropping out of school due to drought in the Horn of Africa, amid warnings that the crisis may result in a “lost generation” without education.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) estimates that 3.6 million children in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia are currently at risk of dropping out of school, as a result of the accumulated stress on families due to the ongoing drought.
In a sign of the dire situation in many regions, that number has more than tripled - from 1.1 million - in the past six months.
Four consecutive failed rainy seasons pushed millions of families to the brink, increasing the number of child deaths from malnutrition and forcing people to leave their homes in search of more resources.
The drought also threatens to have a ripple effect, but it is slower in the three worst affected countries, says UNICEF Education Adviser for Eastern and Southern Africa, Abhiyan Jong Rana.
"Currently, there are about 15 million children out of school in all countries of the Horn of Africa, including the three countries, but the fear is that an additional 3.6 million children will drop out of school as they move with their parents to areas far from their school due to drought," he added.
Teachers and activists in Somaliland, an autonomous region in Somalia, say they are already seeing this effect in their classrooms, with girls mainly leaving their schools.
“When conditions go wrong, girls always bear the brunt of life,” says Plan International's country director, Saadia Allen, who works with communities in Somaliland to help them withstand drought.
teach the hungry
Kien Farah Hassan, a village school principal in the Taghdeer district of Somaliland, hopes this will be a better year for the girls in her school.
At the end of last school year, after two failed rainy seasons, 31 out of 56 girls remained in her school. “Some of the girls got married, some moved with parents who migrated from here because of the drought, and some of them are from poor families who have nothing and are struggling,” she says. in order to earn a living.”
Ken says she used to teach hungry children.
She adds, "Because of their hunger, we sometimes give them a break for 30 minutes and order food from the market to eat, and I cook food in my house and serve it to them."
She says a proper school feeding programme, along with a school bus to cover the 3-6 miles (5-10 kilometres) trip to school, will enable many students to continue in education.
But the absence of this, combined with the additional pressure on family income, increases the odds that children will not remain in the education system.
She also says she believes that three or four of the girls who have dropped out of school have been married since they left school. “Some of them may have married of their own accord, but this problem really affected them.” Child marriage often increases in times of drought or disaster, as parents look to raise extra money. through ponies.
But Jung Rana says he doesn't expect girls to go back to school, just as happened in the wake of the COVID-19 lockdowns, which in some places have coincided with rising rates of early marriage and gender-based violence.
provide care
"Girls in particular are essential in the home because they help provide aspects of care more than boys, in terms of taking care of their younger siblings and taking care of the housework, and I think, with these circumstances, they are more likely not to come back."
Elaine from Hargeisa, the capital of Somaliland, says it is essential that donor countries, such as the United Kingdom, realize that drought and other crises can have serious repercussions on girls' education, and they must provide the necessary funding for this.
In recent days, the new British Prime Minister, Liz Truss, declared that women and girls are a priority.
"My message to her and to the world is that education is absolutely necessary, and if we don't give these girls the resources they need to stay in education, it means losing a generation and it's going to be very costly in the future," she says.
UNICEF estimates that 1.57 million children in Kenya, 1.14 million in Ethiopia, and 900,000 in Somalia, including Somaliland, roughly equal numbers of girls and boys, are at risk of dropping out of school.
She says factors that increase a child's chances of dropping out of school include family displacement to other villages with limited educational capacity, lack of school feeding programmes, and parents' inability to afford necessities, such as books and uniforms.
A proper school feeding programme, along with a school bus to cover the 3-6 miles (5-10 kilometres) journey to school, will enable many students to continue in education. But the absence of this, combined with the additional pressure on family income, increases the odds that children will not remain in the education system.
Factors that increase the chances of a child dropping out of school include family displacement to other villages with limited educational capacity, lack of school feeding programmes, and parents' inability to afford necessities, such as books and uniforms.
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