Programs

HIRDA projects target five thematic areas that give direct benefits to those in desperate need. These include education, gender, humanitarian response, livelihood, diaspora engagement& Remittances and sport peace and development. 

Education

HIRDA aims to give the school aged children their right to education and create better perspectives for their future. In Somalia and among Somali ethnic groups in neighboring countries, enrolment rates in primary education are still very low. HIRDA’s focus will be on promoting equal access for boys and girls and to favor a more child friendly learning environment. Improved access to and enhanced quality of education will result in better job opportunities for school graduates. This will have a positive effect on the family income and hence on the willingness of families to send their children to school. In Somalia, one of the biggest obstacles towards achieving sustainable good quality education is that teachers are often working on a voluntary basis or for a small salary. HIRDA’s main challenge will be to secure teachers’ salaries by organizing community education committees who must ensure payment. To address socio-economic and health issues HIRDA will facilitate curriculum development and inclusion on various subjects for awareness-raising purposes, also in the neighboring countries.


Gender 

“Gender inequality, which remains pervasive worldwide, tends to lower the productivity of labor and the efficiency of labor allocation in households and the economy, intensifying the unequal distribution of resources. It also contributes to the non-monetary aspects of poverty – lack of security, opportunity and empowerment – that lower the quality of life for both men and women. While women and girls bear the largest and most direct costs of these inequalities, the costs cut broadly across society, ultimately hindering development and poverty reduction,”
HIRDA recognizes the important role that women play in development. They provide food for the family, raise the children, and are often the binding factor between families in the community. There is a lot to enhance in the overall situation of Somali women in Somalia and East African region as well as amongst Diaspora. Poverty, lack of access to education and primary healthcare, high-risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, maternal mortality during delivery, harmful traditional/ cultural and social practices such as FGM, gender-based violence, lack of access and control of economic resources, lack of participation in decision-making processes are the main issues that HIRDA will address in this context.

Relief

Somalia has suffered from 18 years of civil war and severe natural calamities such as drought and flooding. These disasters directly affected the degree of self-reliance of communities and the access to primary education. Therefore, HIRDA aims to provide relief services to minimize the impact of these calamities on their projects.

Health

HIRDA runs four of MCHs in Bardera and its surrounding towns and trains social health workers (SHW) to improve community healthcare especially mother and childcare. HIRDA trains 85 social health workers yearly. We also provide competent traditional birth attendant (TBAs) training programmes to reduce delivery related deaths. The trained social health workers and TBAs will deliver basic health needs to their communities and increase awareness health activities to prevent diseases.
There are 20 health posts in the rural areas where HIRDA conducts healthcare awareness and child immunization programmes. The SHW run also outpatients programmes in the rural areas. Malnourished children are fed in the in the MCHs. HIRDA runs also cold chain facilities where immunization medicine are kept. The storage facility distributes immunization medicines to all MCHs in Gedo region.

Sports Peace and development

HIRDA promotes sporting and recreational activities among Somalia youths. HIRDA has provided community youths with sporting facilities guiding them into forming teams for local and cross boarder competitions. This has helped to reduce youths engagement with anti-social activities and make them think of becoming a tool for peace. Several annual competitions are organised to bring Somalia youths together. By helping the young lives, they are guided to building a better social live, saved from falling into the hands of warlords, mentally strengthened to accept responsibilities

Diaspora Engagement

HIRDA policy of Diaspora engagement is intended to facilitate coordination of Diaspora activities in their homeland as well as in the western countries to strengthen their advocacy role in their host country. HIRDA engages with the Diaspora through partnership in information networking, service delivery and capacity building support for local communities in Somalia.  HIRDA believes that somali Diaspora can make useful contributions (social and financial) in restoring development tracks in their country of origin. In the current situation, Contributions of Somali diasporas are not only meaningful in terms of their monetary remittances but the ideas, practices and skills they remit are impacting lives from the grassroots’. HIRDA promotes their bond by reaching out to their communities to expand their involvements, share their aspirations and seek means of achieving greater recognitions within the institutions of migration and development; both at receiving and sending countries.