Taajaa's Story

Girls write furiously

Taajaa Mohamed Abukar is 12 years old and is in the first grade in her village school. Taajaa has three sisters and lives with relatives because both of her parents died in the 1992 famine. "You can stay and play around the house of your parents as long as you wish. But, in the house of a relative, it's different" says Taajaa. "All of my sisters did not get the opportunity of an education and were married early."

A year ago, a girl Taajaa's age and her mother came from the capital of Mogadishu to stay with Taajaa's relatives. Taajaa remembers that for the entire week her visitor told stories about the city and her school there. Taajaa also observed the girl writing on the plastered walls of their hut with chalk.

Taajaa told the Concern staff that, "Since then I have been thinking of how to go to Mogadishu to study. But, because I am an orphan and have no relatives in the capital, I remained in my village. But thanks to the organizations that are working here I now have a chance to study in my own village, which I never expected in my lifetime. I will grasp this opportunity."

"Finally," Taajaa added, "The words written by the girl from Mogadishu are still on the walls… and I want to read them soon."