Nov 04, 2025 Voice for Equity
General Report

The project titled “Every Child Deserves a Chance” was organized by Voice for Equity with the main aim of advocating for children’s right to education and reducing school dropouts within refugee and host communities. The initiative focused on raising awareness among parents, community leaders, and education stakeholders about the importance of equal learning opportunities for all children. The first major activity took place on 19th September 2025, where an advocacy event brought together parents, community leaders, school Boards of Management (BOMs), Refugee-Led Organizations (RLOs), and Governmental and Non-Governmental Organizations (GNOs) such as FILDMED, NRC, and REF FM. The second key activity was held on 15th October 2025, involving school visits to engage with headteachers and students to understand the reasons behind school dropouts. The project strengthened advocacy efforts, community collaboration, and the commitment to ensure every child receives a fair chance to learn.

Our most recent project, “Every Child Deserves a Chance,” achieved remarkable advocacy and community engagement milestones. Through the event held on 19th September 2025, we successfully brought together over 150 participants, including parents, community leaders, school BOMs, RLOs, and partner organizations such as COHERE, FILDMED, NRC, and REF FM. The event strengthened partnerships and increased awareness of the importance of keeping children in school. During the school visits on 15th October 2025, we reached 4 schools, we interacted with over 500 children in different schools and 4 headteachers and identified key factors contributing to school dropouts. As a result, we got over 75 children who dropped out of schools were re-enrolled through community follow up efforts by community leaders around those schools. The project empowered parents to take an active role in their children’s education and inspired community leaders to advocate for inclusive learning opportunities, reinforcing our mission to ensure that every child receives the chance to learn and thrive.
Through this effort, we assisted community leaders at Nasipunda and Shabelle Primary Schools in organizing awareness activities to emphasize the importance of children attending school in the morning before going to Madaraza. The Parents also committed to ensuring their children attend school in the mornings going forward from next year.

The “Every Child Deserves a Chance” project provided valuable lessons and highlighted best practices that strengthened our advocacy for inclusive education. One key lesson learned was the power of collaboration bringing together parents, school BOMS, community leaders and organizations like FILDMED, NRC, and REF FM created a united voice that effectively addressed school dropout issues. Another lesson was the importance of community ownership; when parents and community leaders are actively involved in discussions and decision-making, they become strong advocates for children’s education.

Through school visits, we learned that open communication with headteachers and students helps uncover the real causes of dropouts, such as Early marriage for girls, lack of parental support, and emotional stress. Early identification and collective problem-solving proved to be the best way to prevent children from leaving school.

Among the best practices was using advocacy forums like the events we contact with the help of our working groups and school visits as complementary strategies one for awareness-raising and the other for practical follow-up. We also discovered that empowering parents through dialogue like our focued groups disscussions with the parents and community leaders fosters accountability and long-term commitment to education. Lastly, documenting stories of success and challenges improved transparency and motivated partners to continue supporting efforts toward ensuring every child has access to quality education.