We've worked in Somalia/Somaliland since 1951, delivering life-saving humanitarian services and reaching millions with our education, health and protection services.
We believe in building community resilience, through:
- Providing basic social services in education, health and protection
- Strengthening government capacity to deliver such services
- Working with communities and children to promote their rights.
Save the Children has been responding to humanitarian needs in the country for decades, but our reach has been constrained by lack of access to communities in need as a result of widespread conflict, poor infrastructure and limited donor funding.
Most of our work is in Somaliland and Puntland, the independent regions of northwest Somalia.
In Somaliland, we’re helping the government put into practice its new juvenile justice law, enshrining children’s rights for the first time. We’re working with the ministries of education and health and other organisations, improving nutrition, reducing child and maternal mortality, and establishing and improving child protection systems. In Puntand, we’re working with communities, helping to provide basic healthcare and getting more children into school.
In the areas affected by conflict, we rely on our extraordinarily skilled Somali staff to maintain our humanitarian neutrality and provide the services that save children’s lives. But even here, we can improve children’s lives.
Our emergency nutrition and health programmes help thousands of children and mothers. And in education, we’ve surpassed our targets, helping more children get into school for the first time, and helping to deliver vocational, life skills and literacy training.
