Success Story

Photographer: WFP

Hassan is a boy from a pastoralist drop out family in Mandera, Northeastern Kenya. He is 12 years old and is currently in class four at Mandera DEB primary school. He recounted to me his family situation and how he considered school a better option for him. The society’s disposition in child upbringing and its after effects on the learning ability is also given due coverage.

From the moment he mastered the art of effective communication, Hassan pestered his father with endless questions about life. To start with, he wanted to understand why they lived among the peri-urban poor around Mandera town. His father narrated to him about their loss of livestock during the infamous drought of the 90s. Having nowhere else to run to, they migrated to the commercial centre in search of medicine and food. This is how they ended up in Mandera and there was no turning back. To their family, this marked the beginning of their departure from mainstream nomadic pastoralism. It was while in this new environment that his father mentioned to him a strange phenomenon called schooling and education which he had overheard from the chiefs meeting the previous week. He took some time contemplating on all the pros and cons that were possible before making a bold move. According to his father, the dream of an improved lifestyle would only be guaranteed if his children could give a try to education. To Hassan’s father the assurance of regular meals during all school days quelled his worst fears. He smiled the moment his father asked him of his opinion on the matter. This was just but to confirm that the moment he had been waiting for had eventually come. To him he wanted to take the credit of being the first to restore hope in life for their destitute family. To achieve this, he wanted to be in school as soon as possible.

The New Year was fast approaching and he asked his parents to try him out in the nearby nursery school. The day of tryouts came and Hassan together with his father was early in school. He vowed to make a good impression on the nursery master. He went through the rigorous recruitment exercise from using the right hand to touch the left ear to aptitude tests. To him, this was the big chance to either earn a start in an education cycle or to forget it all. He felt greatly elated when he was granted the chance. It was the turning point in his life.

While in nursery, he remembers what he considers immortal words from one of his teachers: “The two things I enjoy about little children is the fact that they seem happy in their surroundings and the fact that they are always glad to touch this and that in their unending learning adventure. Quite often, they ask a lot of questions and I like to take my time to talk to them. They inspire me every single day of life.” In primary school, math and English teachers encouraged him a lot through their mastery of their subjects and took a lot of interest in their learner’s needs. As a result, he did exceptionally well in these subjects as well.

In their primary school, Hassan had a lot of pitty for girls because of their passivity and dependency syndrome. To him, this has a negative effect on their overall motivation to achieve, to search for new and independent ways of doing things, and to welcome the challenge of new and unsolved problems. In his view, cases were common in class where girls were seen trying to seek help and approval from teachers more frequently than boys.

In his native Somali culture, society’s presumptions enter the scene much earlier than most people would suspect. Parents begin to raise their children in accordance with popular stereotypes. According to Hassan, “Boys are encouraged to be aggressive, competitive and independent whereas girls are rewarded for being passive and dependent.” Hassan remembers his mother touching and speaking to his elder sister more as she played than her twin brother. When they attained the age of ten, the girl was more reluctant than the boy to leave the mother. She returned quickly and frequently and remained closer to her throughout the entire play period. He says, “One evening, their father placed a high traditional stool between the two children and their mother as a barrier. The girl cried and motioned for help while the boy made an active attempt to go round the stool. This habit made it difficult for his sister to be more assertive and independent later in school.”

Hassan has a lot of sympathy for other children who did not take interest in joining school. Most of them though still young have started leading miserable lives. Many are not in a position to secure any employment to assist their poor families. Social ills remain a common practice among many youths that have not had even elementary education. Thuggery, drug abuse (chewing khat or miraa) and other forms of immorality add up to their ever expanding menu of misdeeds. This general trend has made most of them more of a burden to the society.

Hassan is keen to point out that the School feeding programme supported by WFP has always defined every aspect of his school life. His performance has remained good and this encouraged his father to send all the other siblings to school as well. According to his father, “WFP offers that elusive hope to a secure and better future, for he is sure his children will grow to make informed decisions in their lives. WFP is the true bridge across the river of starvation and his son will one day help fight global hunger.”