USWO PROJECT: SUPPORT TO THE PROMOTION OF GENDER EQUALITY AND WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT IN SOMALILAND FUNDED EUROPEAN UNION (EU)

On 1st October 2014, USWO signed a new project on "Support to the promotion of gender equality and women's empowerment in Somalia/land funded by the European Union (EU) to Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and managed by and in partnership with IIDA Women's Development Organization (IIDA).

AWARENESS DRAMA PROJECT ON UNDOCUMENTED MIGRANTS CROSSING THROUGH SOMALILAND

Looking for a better life and many other reasons irregular migrants from Ethiopia and South Central Somalia cross the Gulf of Aden into Yemen while a large number of migrants from Somaliland go through Ethiopia and Sudan to reach Libya and Mediterranean Sea to Italy through. As both routes are dangerous and risk-full, robbery, rape, detention, torture and human rights abuses.  On the journey, some of the migrants die in the sea, others disappear while few saved migrants face hazardous working conditions, refused promised wages and physical abuse.

MARYAM MURSAL: SOMALI LEGENDARY MUSIC, VOCALS AND COMPOSER IN REAL WORLD RECORDS

Maryam Mursal was born in January 1, 1950; grew up in Somalia in a Muslim family with four daughters and has been active in somali music since 1980s.

As a teenager, she broke with tradition and began singing professionally in Mogadishu. She performed in nightclubs and her brand of music, featuring a mix of blues, soul, Somali and Arabic influences, and known as Somali jazz, became popular across the country. Performing primarily solo, she also collaborated with Waaberi, a 300-member music and dance troupe associated with the Somali National Theatre. Later, after having criticized Somalia's then ruling military government, she was banned from singing for two years, and made her living driving a taxi.

During the subsequent civil war in her homeland, Mursal and her five children moved to neighbouring Djibouti, where she found asylum in the Danish embassy. It was this odyssey that provided the germ of her solo recording The Journey, with guitars, sequencers and back-up vocals from Peter Gabriel.

THE SITUATION OF INTERNALLY DISPLACED MINORITIES IN SOMALILAND AND SOMALIA.

Somalia has witnessed over two decades of conflict, violence, human rights violations and natural disasters, all of which have triggered repeated waves of displacement. Although the first half of 2013 saw less new displacement than in previous years, there are still an estimated 1.1 million Somalis who are internally displaced. Most IDPs continue to live in dire conditions in protracted displacement, and prospects for durable solutions remain distant for many of them. For more information please visit: http://www.internal-displacement.org/africa/somalia/2013/solutions-for-idps-revealed-as-key-for-future-peace-and-stability-in-somalia/

EVEN IF LIFE SHOWS THEM HUNDRED REASONS TO CRY, WITHIN A FEW SECONDS THEY SHOW LIFE THOUSAND REASONS TO SMILE

LIFE TASTES SWEET IN CHILDHOOD; NO MATTER HOW TIME GETS ROUGH, WHEN NEEDS SURROUND THEM, WHAT KINDS OF CHALLENGES TOMORROW SHALL HAVE. ALL THEY DO IS HAPPINESS. EVEN IF LIFE SHOWS THEM HUNDRED REASONS TO CRY, WITHIN A FEW SECONDS THEY SHOW LIFE THOUSAND REASONS TO SMILE.

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CHILDREN ARE THE MOST VULNERABLE GROUPS AND VICTIMS OF MORE POTENTIAL RISKS

During the last couple of years, Somaliland experienced movement of people crossing from neighboring countries and passing through. The majority of this migration is due to widespread poverty, limited education, economic hardships and search for a better life. Many of these migrants who want to change their lives fall into severe trafficking, without help and end up lost in the middle.

PROTECTION OF IRREGULAR MIGRATION AND AWARENESS RAISING IN SOMALILAND

Due to various reasons, so many migrants are crossing borders and taking the risk in search of a better life. Recently, this activity has gained its’ prominence as one of the most serious issues in the Horn of Africa. It is a multi-dimensional and complex phenomenon that poses several challenges for migrants while they are on journey as they encounter robbery, rape, detention, torture and human rights abuses.

Miss. Hodan Mas Mas is a Somalilander teenage girl. She composed this poem on the youth at risks of irregular migration and here recites in this video as she needs to participate in the protection efforts of irregular and awareness raising in Somaliland.