This gift in action
After decades of conflict, Somalia’s hard-pressed government has found it difficult to fund its education system.
In 2008, only 30 percent of school-age children were enrolled in school countrywide, according to the Somalia Education Cluster. Schools in Mogadishu even shut down for three days in a protest against insecurity and attacks targeting schools.
Two years on and fighting in Mogadishu still closes schools for up to weeks at a time.
But 12-year-old Zamazam Abdulle is one of the lucky – and plucky – ones. She goes to Iman primary, a school supported by Oxfam, which was opened in 2005 to teach poor children in Yaqshid district of Mogadishu.
And while travelling to and from school is sometimes difficult because of worries of violence, Abdulle is glad that the school is there and is determined to finish her education so she can help other poor girls.
"I am the only child in my family who goes to school. My eldest sister Asha, cooks and prepares the food we eat. In future I am going to be a teacher because I want to support and educate impoverished girls like me."