Orphanage closures render thousands of children homeless

About 3,000 Somali orphans are facing an uncertain future after the orphanages caring for them closed last week, for lack of funds. They were forced to cease operations because the Saudi-based Al-Haramayn aid agency, which was funding them, was banned from working in Somalia after the US government said it had links with terrorists. The Islamic agency closed its offices in Somalia in May last year, but the orphanages continued to take care of the children, "because the agency left enough money to run them for six months", Dahir Ghelle, who worked in one of the orphanages in Mogadishu, told IRIN on Thursday. "We had to stretch the money to last us up to now," he said. There had been hope that the agency would succeed in clearing its name and return, Abdullahi Haji Abukar, who works with the children, told IRIN. "I think they [orphanages] have come to the end of the road, unless some agency or individual intervenes." Al-Haramayn first came to Somalia in 1992, at the height of a famine. It funded a total of eight orphanages nationwide, housing children between the ages of six and 13 years. Five of the orphanages were in Mogadishu and the rest in Marka in southern Somalia, and Burao and Hargeysa in the self-declared republic of Somaliland, respectively. Most of the orphans the agency cared for, had lost one or both parents in war. "I don't know what I will do now", Ardo Adan, a mother, whose seven year-old son was being cared for by one of the Mogadishu orphanages. "I cannot take care of him. The orphanage was the only chance he had for a future," said Ardo, who does odd jobs to make ends meet. She told IRIN that because of the closure of the orphanage, she feared that her son could become a street boy. "He was being cared for, went school and had discipline. I am out most of the day looking for something put in the pot, and now I don't know what he will get into." She went on to say she believed it was wrong to punish poor and innocent children by arbitrarily depriving them of their stability and security. The impact of the closures would be most acutely felt by the poorest of the poor, added Abukar. "The vast majority of the children come from homes like Ardo's, where if they get one meal a day, they consider themselves lucky." Seven-year-old Abdi'aziz Shaykh Ibrahim, Ardo's son, told IRIN that he did not understand why his orphanage had been closed down. "What have we done wrong?" he asked. He said all he wanted was to go back to the orphanage and return to school. At the orphanages, which were boarding establishments, the children had been provided with tuition, food and medical care, Abukar told IRIN. Four times a year, each was given new set of clothing. "It was nothing fancy but, they were even better off than their counterparts looked after by parents," Abukar noted. He went on to appeal to the donor community to come to the aid of the orphans. "I hope the international donor agencies, will step in and support these children," he said. "Maybe the Americans could send an NGO to care for them," he suggested. He also appealed for help from Muslim countries, warning that unless help was forthcoming soon, "most of the children will probably end up on the streets and join the large number of young delinquents roaming around, causing mayhem". A senior UN humanitarian official said: "We are concerned about the situation and we are looking into the consequence of the closure for the children," Jesper Morch, the UNICEF representative in Somalia, told IRIN.