Over 410,000 people across the Horn of Africa are learning to read and write in Somali with a free language app called Daariz. The Horn of Africa consists of Somaliland, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti and Kenya.
Daariz, which was introduced in 2021, intends to improve language proficiency for students of all ages in order to alleviate the low literacy rates in the area. The Sahamiye Foundation, a nonprofit organisation devoted to enhancing education in the Horn of Africa and equipping everyone with lifelong literacy skills, created Daariz.
One of the countries in the region, Somaliland, gained independence in 1991 after a civil war. It has a democratically elected administration and has had more stability than the rest of Somalia, while not being acknowledged officially as a distinct state. It is one of the places with the lowest literacy rates in the world due to the effects of the war, a lack of infrastructure, and ongoing droughts.
About the economic condition in Somalia, Unicef Somalia’s education chief Peter Quamo says, “A lot of the population are pastoralists and rural. They are isolated. Some of them are on the move. And it’s not just Somaliland. Somalia [and] South Sudan have a similar large population like that. It’s very difficult sometimes to sustain education with those children and those families.”
A far reaching educational vision
However, Ismail Ahmed and his nonprofit organisation, the Sahamiye Foundation, think they have the ideal solution to get past it.
Early in his 20s, Ahmed fled Somaliland for the UK as a refugee. He released the popular money-transfer software World Remit. He founded the Sahamiye Foundation to “give back to his community” after stepping down as the company’s CEO. His idea was to create Daariz. People can use the app in remote locations and while travelling as it is free and can be used offline.
He is very confident about the app and believes this as the way of the future. He says, “It used to take us to go to class to learn our own mother tongue and now we have thousands of users who were able to be functionally literate in their own tongue without going to a class.”
Daariz-facilitating educational accessibility
By providing online reading, writing, comprehension, and library sessions, Daariz makes sure that everyone has access to a continuous and excellent education.
With the aid of Daariz, adults and children who are in and out of school may quickly develop functional literacy in Somali. It makes learning interesting and entertaining by combining enjoyable, interactive games, individualised feedback, and a reward system.
More women and girls who face substantial educational challenges may now learn reading skills remotely, thanks to the app’s offline accessibility. Women and girls make up over 48% of the student body in Daariz, which is much more than the region’s average for female enrollment in schools.
