IOM
Addis Ababa – More than 500 pupils attend Bilisuma primary school in Gursum District in Ethiopia’s Oromia Regional State, despite there being, until recently, no school to attend. The schoolhouses had been lying in ruins ever since intercommunal violence swept through the region two years ago.
This meant many of the children from both Oromo and Somali communities who used to attend its classes here were unable to do so. Most classrooms had been destroyed or rendered completely unusable.
Until now. This past weekend (12/12), the International Organization for Migration (IOM) handed the school over to the government and the community, after the Organization had helped with its reconstruction. “Even before the damage, we were barely retaining the school. The facility was in a bad condition,” recalled Bahir Ahmednur, the school principal. “We were trying to keep the school functioning by using makeshift mud sheds. But they wouldn’t last more than a mon