Mr. Abdurashid Ali,SFS Executive Director, Hon. Anisa Abdulkadir Haji Mumin,Minister for Women Development and Family Affairs, Mr. Said,MoE and Mr. Ahmed Cali Shire (Keyse),DG-MoE, four of the panelists at a public debate event titled ‘Reading Culture and Stability‘, event held in Garowe-Punland, 2014.

November 6, 2014: A public debate on reading culture and stability was held at Puntland Library and Resource Center (PLRC), hosted and sponsored by Somali Family Services (SFS). The public event was heavily attended by noted government officials, writers, philanthropists, businessmen, educationist and students from local schools and the universities. The event was organized by SFS in partnership with Ministry of women development and family affairs (MOWDAF) and Ministry of Education (MoE) brought the government officials, professionals’ schools management and students’ together, interacting and exchanging ideas on how a dedicated front can help improve the state of low level reading culture and overall stability in Puntland, Somalia.

Welcoming guests at the event, Mr. Abdurashid Ali, Executive Director, SFS acknowledged the Hon. Anisa Abdulkadir Haji Mumin, Minister for MOWDAFA, Mr. Ahmed, Director General, MoE, Mr. Said, Technical Advisor, Higher education-MoE, Madam Siraad Yussuf , CSO activist and the participants present and thanked them for making to the event. Mr. Abdurashid, gave in-depth information on how SFS has evolved since it was established in 2007 by mentioning some of few achievement such as creation of employment for the youth and distribution of 200 million books to Puntland educational institutions.

Mr. Abdurashid Ali then introduced Hon. Anisa Abdulakdir, Minister of MOWDAF who said, “The

main factors that contribute to low level of reading culture are our culture, lack of discipline on reading within families and lastly, limited reading books; These three factors hinder the cognitive development of child as early as in his/her childhood”. We are being termed as people with high IQ but it’s unfortunate we do not make use of our intelligence very well.

Also to give keynote speech was Mr. Ahmed Keyes, DG, MoE, Puntland who conceptualized the theme of the debate, elaborated on the pressing need for Puntland learning institutions to realize the significance of amalgamating local mechanism of improving the culture of reading such as establishment of readers’ committees for students today. ‘There is a significant gap between academia, Somali culture today, which is directly linked to lack of a holistic approach.’ He explained that a dearth of books in schools was one of the major reasons that there is low level of reading culture”.

Madam Siraad Yussuf, echoed the sentiments of other speakers and emphasized the need to start the culture of reading from homes whilst the child is young.

There was Q & A session and the event was officially closed by the event chief guest, Hon. Minister for MOWDAF, Madam Anisa Abdulakdir.

Somali Family Services (SFS) had hosted similar dialogues/debates forums in the past with different themes and stakeholders. These events are aimed to engage civil society, government and the members of the public on the deepening discourse surrounding social issues in Puntland, Somalia.