Baadweyn
Ba’adweyn town is a pastoral nomadic urban center 50 kilometres from Galkayo along the Galkayo-Garowe road. Ba’ad Weyn was originally a watering center for the pastoral nomadic communities of Mudug region. This town is estimated to have a population of approximately 10,000 people, who are mainly pastoral nomadic, returnees and internally displaced people. The main economic activities in this town are livestock rearing and small scale trading. The amenities include an old MCH, four Quranic schools and one primary school that mainly cater for boys. The town is surrounded by …….. villages in including Heema, Ceel Gardi, Roox and Margaago. The town has a large population of internally displaced people, who occupy the Margago IDP settlement with a population of 3,828 (according to an Inter-agency mapping exercise conducted in September 2012). Among them are many young girls and women who have no access to education and skills training facilities. Soaring poverty rates and homelessness has exposed the girls to exploitation and abuse.
GECPD in Baadweyn
GECPD has been working with the Ba’adweyn community since 2001 providing education to girls and women from poor, orphaned, returnee and IDP families within the town and Margaga IDP settlement. The classes were being run in two shifts; morning and afternoon. The challenge of implementing the programs in rented premises was great as rent charges were ever increasing and demand for the programs meant renting more rooms. GECPD has since constructed two learning centers in this town; Ba’adweyn Women Education Center and Ba’adweyn Girls Primary School.
