Child Sponsor Somalia

It's a tragedy that a generation of Somalia children are being forced to grow up knowing nothing but famine, war and conflict. The life expectancy in Somalia is just 55.28 years (2021) and over 60% of the population is under the age of twenty-five with just over 40% of children in primary school, one of the lowest enrollment rates in the world.

The country also has one of the highest youth unemployment rates, leaving those young people vulnerable to recruit by terrorist groups.

All this against a backdrop of regular droughts and floods causing food shortages and the inevitable unemployment that has driven hundreds of thousands of Somalis from their homes.

Somalia is effectively a failed state in conflict and doesn't even have a Human Development Index score as there is insufficient data on the status of the country's citizens due to the ongoing political instability and violence. As such, most of the work in Somalia is to get humanitarian aid in quickly then withdraw and leave longer term planning until there is some semblance of order in the country. As a result, millions are suffering both physical and emotional trauma as well as shortages of life essentials. For these reasons there are limited child sponsor programs in Somalia, however, as ever, SOS Children's Villages continue to provide care for orphaned and abandoned children. You can help when your sponsor a child in Somalia.