Youth Spotlight

Interview with Mubarak Omar of Somaliland Youth Voluntary Organization

1.  What motivated you to become a youth activist?

My dream to be a youth activist came in the wake of the peace building process and rebuilding in Somaliland, the former Northwest of Somalia, in which all parts of the community participated. Despite our relentless efforts, youth were not involved at all in this process or included in any decision making bodies in any level of the community. The main reason given for the exclusion of youth was that tradition barred us from having a role, and our adult allies were not ready to respect the voice of youth.

However, there were some intellectual groups who sympathetically advised us to have one united effort and raise the voice of youth in an organized method.  During that time, a group of youth including myself, came together and created a very active youth organization called SOYVO that started on a voluntary basis and with a high moral of commitment.

In the very few short years of our existence, SOYVO has taken pleasure in more achievement than many comparable local adult lead organizations in our field. Having begun as a small team working voluntarily out of one small room, we now employee fifteen full time staff. The one room has fully changed and is now an eye catching building with six offices, a resource center, youth multipurpose development center, a large meeting hall, and even operates with four different cars. Most people understand the creativity of young people and they see young people as a very important element of national development.  That is what leads and motivates me to be a youth activist in my country and wherever I may go in the world.

2.  How do you work to improve human rights in your country?

We envision better years in our existence, as we complete several projects currently under implementation and undertake new initiatives which will further empower young people.

SOYVO realizes that the problem of human rights and child abuse is rampant, wide spread and takes diverse forms particularly at the community level. Under this component, the organization endeavors to develop an increased commitment of information sharing so as to decentralize human rights protection and child protection efforts to the community level, as well as to provide a basis of support for the establishment of viable strategies in the Somaliland regions. The organization undertakes activities geared towards developing sustainable programs in child/human rights protection.  We implement different activities in Somaliland to address youth human rights and peace building programmes such as community mobilization and drama performances, the Somaliland annual Youth Forum for Human Rights, capacity building trainings, conferences, and team sports that promote peace building. Our group of youth also aims to monitor and document the human rights situation of women, youth and children in Somaliland region, including IDP camps.

SOYVO organizes a campaign for International Human Rights Day every year and organizes a public campaign for International Peace Day regularly. We also provide free education for prisoners in Burao jail, provide psychosocial counseling for human rights victims especially youth, children and women. We organize campaigns and participate in efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation at the grassroots level, organize seminars to raise public awareness on the importance of human rights promotion, and provide frequent lectures to schools and universities.
 
3.  What techniques do you use to reach out to and encourage democratic values in rural areas?
　
We have an ongoing youth democracy participation project that directly empowers youth to become agents for positive social change though literacy campaigns, advocacy, and civic and human rights education. The organization currently leads a grassroots civic education campaign and trains young community-based democracy promoters. As part of this campaign, we work and use different techniques to reach rural and urban youth groups. In rural areas we use:

• Drama performance. This performance is the most effective mechanism we use to overcome the challenges of existing high numbers of illiterate young people and of course we use to reach illiterate people and communities too.
• Capacity building workshops for youth NGOs and networks. We focus on democratic values and how to participate in free and fair elections and youth rights. All of these activities increase youth participation in decision making and community development.
• Advocacy. It is a process of communication which goes beyond mere dissemination of information, education and communication. The objective of our advocacy activities are to strengthen the beneficiaries competencies in advocacy, so that they can work creatively in their respective environments, and effectively implement laws, policies and strategies related to democratic values and youth participation in general.
• Forums and conferences. SOYVO offered its “Advocacy for our Youth Participation Democracy” a youth regional forum, conference, and high level national symposium to equip participants with knowledge and skills to advocate for youth democratic participation, including in rural areas.

　
4.  What do you think is the greatest problem in your country?

Great strides have been made, but for me and my organization SOYVO, we recognize that many unresolved youth development challenges still remain, especially now in the face of:

• HIV/AIDS.
• Limited education, employment opportunities, and limited sports training centers.
• High school drop-out rates among girls from poor families and the issue of FGM/FGC and forced marriage among girls.
•  Conflicts based upon clans among young people.
•  Limit of youth reproductive health services for HIV/AIDS intervention.
• National youth policies that create and reform inclusiveness of youth and their livelihood needs. We are still waiting for our house of Parliament to approve this.

There is a lack of governmental plans and programs that focus on reducing youth unemployment and there is no generation of income for youth through innovative, entrepreneurial ideas within the government.  A central reason for high rates of unemployment is the low economic growth, which is manifested in low economic activity and investment rates, which do not generate enough additional employment. There is also a lack of youth participation in decision making at local and national levels. Good governance and a drive for democracy are critical success factors for youth participation.
　
5. What can youth do to address this problem?

I think the will is near but the realization of our dream is challenging. What we have learnt over the years is that conceiving an organization is not an easy task, particularly in an environment where local resources and organizational skills are limited. The fact that we are working in a patriarchal world that is unfamiliar and often hostile towards accepting youth participation has made our task more difficult still.

Advocating for better demonstration in community relationships is one of the important parts of our work. We also manage different important programs dealing with HIV/AIDS education, child protection programmes, empowerment for girls through education, trainings for school teachers, civic education on democracy and fundamental human rights principles, and peace building programmes through sports promotion.  All of these activities are based on our response to address youth problems. However, today we can be overconfident in the progress we have made. We are empowering the youth of Somaliland to raise their concern assertively, both to the country's authorities and to the general public.  As we look to the future, we are convinced that we can consolidate our achievements and become effective partners in the development of our nation.  Finally, as we recognize that youth participation can increase and contribute to the social development, including peace building, democracy and human rights promotion, we believe participation is power - so we have expanded our programme focus to incorporate youth empowerment in all of our programme activities.
　
 5.  What tips do you have for other youth to garner international support for their efforts?

We have seen more efforts related to climate change, women's rights, and global funds for education.  I believe it is very important to continue the efforts related to all topics that I mentioned above for such issues. Youth issues also need to be given high profile attention like other topics because young people are the flower of today and the leaders of tomorrow. Finally, more collaboration, coordination and networking between youth activists and leaders and all related stakeholders is important to achieve more progress and to break the challenges concerning young people’s problems.