Somaliland

Welcome GCC Somaliland with a cohort of trained, dedicated and experienced youth leaders motivating their peers across seven regions throughout the country. The program launched February, 2012.

Somaliland youngsters introduced to their global peers.The hilly city of Hargeisa, capital of the breakaway republic of Somaliland, was the venue of a youth gathering that brought together 36 youth from across 7 regions of Somaliland. The 5 day leadership training course pioneered the first batch of Global Citizens Corps (GCC) peace ambassadors in the East and Horn of Africa.

Under the Somaliland chapter, the Global Citizen Corps (GCC) is a Mercy Corps youth-led project funded by the USAID within the Somali Youth Leaders Initiative (SYLI). The program connects Somaliland youth to other GCC youths around the world  determined as well encourages youth within Somaliland to network in a bid to address perennial problems and encourage cohesion and friendship among the youth.

The GCC is already being implemented in the United States, the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan, Palestine, Tunisia and Lebanon. In these countries the youth have left their mark by implementing impact projects that have already made a difference in their communities.

Since the training just a few days ago, the new GCC Somaliland page–http://www.globalcitizencorps.org/somaliland - has already received over 700 hits. There have been a whopping 2,468 posts -- the biggest since the introduction of the GCC program in 2003 -- in response to the first post from Somaliland youth introducing the new GCC youth members to the rest of the GCC global family.

The GCC seeks to inspire and equip an expanding international network of young leaders to take informed action that build secure, productive and just communities around the world. GCC hopes to achieve this goal by connecting young people globally using the latest social networking tools in order for the young citizens to share ideas as well as equip themselves with the necessary leadership and civic responsibilities to become better and productive members of their society and ready to work together to spread the word about root causes of critical global issues and by mobilizing others in their locality to make a difference in their communities.

Two experienced GCC and Mercy Corps facilitators from the United States, Amie Wells and Gilberto Corral imparted the GCC knowledge to the 36 youth ToT’s or Training for Trainers including 7 ladies.  The training incorporated the use of live video conferencing with youth in Tunisia and Indonesia which went well with the Somaliland youth many of who have never left their homes and were really interested to learn more from their peers in Tunis and Jakarta.

The 36 youth received tips and knowledge on or about life skills, personal and leadership development, citizenship and civic responsibility, advocacy, fundraising, communications and media skills, cross-cultural communication, listening, discussion, dialogue, empathy and understanding, action-planning, community mobilization, community mapping and Monitoring and Evaluation. The GCC Learning took place both in-person and online, providing  the necessary foundation for active community involvement for the youth who are expected to train their peers in the regions and villages across Somaliland.

Many of the youth were simply elated with the arrival of the GCC project in Somaliland and the prospect of connecting them with their global peers as well as the opportunity to meet their local peers within Somaliland.

Rahma Abdillahi Elmi, who spoke on behalf of the youth during the closing ceremony attended by Chief of Guest Mustafe Mohamud Qodah, Director General of the Somaliland Ministry of Youth, Sports and Culture, hailed Mercy Corps and the GCC team for the training and urged her peers to seize the rare opportunity offered to them.

“It is my pleasure to stand here on behalf of the youth to pass our gratitude to Mercy Corps, the GCC and the Ministry for availing the training to us. I wish to urge my colleagues to take advantage of this opportunity in order to better our communities and serve our people diligently,” She said, amid claps from her peers.

For other youth, the mere opportunity to meet and share ideas with their peers in Tunisia and Indonesia was very appealing to them.

“I learnt a lot during the 5 day training and am confident of leading other youths from my region in order to address pertinent issues that affect us. I was really impressed by the GCC project which seeks to connect the youth globally through social online tools like Skype and Facebook. It was fun chatting and learning from our peers in Tunisia and Indonesia because I had never used a video conference before,” Abdirizak Abdillahi Shire from Erigavo town of Sanag region said with a smile