The education program is central to the IAS intervention activities. It is the linchpin of all other activities in the community. IAS has supported 10 community owned schools in different districts. One of the schools was no longer given support due to fighting in the community that resulted in two deaths and interruption of learning. It is imperative to note that the IAS supported schools are rated among the best in Mogadishu. There are over 100 teachers and 3000 students in the schools. Three of the schools that are supported by another donor through IAS has also benefited from the staff training and administrative support. They account for 543 of this number. The other 2490 consists of 1402 boys and 1088 girls in schools supported fully by Sida.

It has always been the policy of IAS to work in partnership with the local community for their own development. The CECs are encouraged to get some token from the parents in form of school fees and use it for the development. This creates a sense of ownership among the parents.

IAS supports the schools with educational materials, teachers’ incentives, capacity building, renovation of the sites and medical drugs. It further encourages the community to help themselves by holding meetings for elders and offering training to the members of CECs. The outcome is that, in spite of the low income of the bulk of communities that own the schools, their awareness on the importance of education has increased considerably. Some schools have gone a step further and initiated income generating activities to supplement what they get from the pupils as school fees. As an example, Waberi School collected 1,781 USD in 2003 while Omar Berre School collected about 30 USD for the same period.

Income generating projects

The computer classes are still going on at Waberi School as an income generating project. Two other schools, K50 and Omar Berre, have school farms that are cultivated. The later also have a poultry project where they are rearing local breeds. It will take some time before these venture bring in good returns to make a meaningful impact. All schools continues therefor to depend on the support from IAS to function.

- Capacity building activities for all education workers.
- Five training sessions were held in the year.
- Routine visits and supervision by country/education coordinators.
- Visits to the schools by expatriates from Kenya and Europe.
- Assessment of special needs children by a team from Hargeisa office.
- Renovations of schools and giving them a face lift.
- Building and equipping four classrooms and two offices in Elasha.
- Distributions of textbooks to the schools.
- Distributions of books from UNICEF and UNESCO to the schools.
- Sensitising the community on the needs of education.
- Adult education classes for one of the schools.
- Implementation of a teacher training program in five schools.