Zahra was a member of a group of 30 children who are championing children's rights in their school and are based in Mogadishu, Somalia. Together they have become the voice of children in Mogadishu and have partnered with organizations like Save the Children in Somalia. Their network promotes children's rights and support the government enacting laws and policies to protect children's rights, including their right to survive, learn and be protected and through her campaign, she has spoken at national and regional forums on behalf of Somali children.

 Zahra, now 18 years old, first became a member of children's groups in her school when she was 14. She believes that children in Somalia deserve a better health, education and protection services and hopes to become a lawmaker herself one day to support policies ensuring children's rights are protected under the law.

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My name is Zahra, and I was born in central Somalia.

I lost my father when I was two years old. We were a pastoralist family. My older siblings used to herd the livestock, and I used to accompany them sometimes. Herding livestock was fun in the country, I used to run after kids.

My family moved to Mogadishu when I was about six years old, and a few months later, I was enrolled into school.

When I was growing up in Mogadishu, my friends and I used to play a lot. Sometimes, they used I play games, but for me I didn't like playing games, so I stopped. I grew fond of drawing, and I remember each afternoon, I would sit down and try to draw a flower, a person I met or an animal just to make myself busy. Instead of playing, I loved spending my free time re-learning what I was taught at school that day.

At home, I play a very important role in our family, especially when it comes to decisions directly linked to our choices and needs, such as what we eat. My mother usually takes our opinions seriously.

I completed my secondary education in July 2022. I have studied at an Orphanage school for girls, a boarding school located in a district in the south-eastern Banadir region of Somalia. So, this is my story and how I go about my daily routine.

My mornings:

5:00: I wake up, brush my teeth, and perform mypray. I read the Quran, revise lessons I learned the day before and later prepare myself for school.

6:30: I am all set and ready for school. I attend boarding school which means where I live, and my school are under one compound. So before I proceed to my classes, I go to the dining area and have tea and dates. Then, I attend the lessons scheduled for that day. We attend classes from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm. We take a break between 10:00 am – 10:30 am. After I finish my classes and come back for lunch and revise my lessons. During the weekend, on Thursday and Friday, I would visit my home occasionally and visit my mother and siblings, though not every weekend. And when I go home, I would help with the house chores.

Honestly, the relationship between my classmates and I is very strong. We lived together in under one compound, the teachers and other students have been part of my life for more than a decade, and they shaped my life. They are my family.

Children groups coming together.

16:00: At the school, I was among the child champions from the child rights club in our school. Our child club had 30 children who met every Monday to discuss various issues affecting children in our school. We meet in the afternoon 16:00 and we we would discuss any problems that some of our members have presented us so that we can share the information faster with other children within our school.

Among the topics of discussions that have produced successful results is we managed to bring back to school girls who got married so that they could continue with their studies, and this was all the result of the countless awareness raisings we have made regarding child marriage.

Previously, it was very rare to see children participating or discussing issues affecting them. However, when the child rights club was formed almost five years ago, we slowly saw a change within our school and the surrounding community.

Children have been in the frontline meeting with the duty bearers, and civil society and child rights organisations such as Save the Children, among others, sharing our voices and concerns mostly about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and its effects on girls to which I am grateful it was heard and resulted in a significant impact as the cases of FGM started to decrease. We also talk about issues related to climate change.

One of the things I liked best about the work we have been doing is being a voice representing Somali children. As a child, I knew that it was my right to voice the problems that other children and I were facing and for our voices to be heard, we came together to discuss the issues we were facing, and we would look for a way forward to address them.

The Covid-19 pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic almost brought a stand-still to the lobbying or campaigning work we were doing within our school as they were temporarily closed. We couldn't meet in the larger group as before, so we had to create a WhatsApp group that we used to pass on the message we wanted to ensure that we still create awareness and educate our fellow girls on the importance of education even during the pandemic time.

If any issues needed our attention and we had to discuss them face to face, the other three members of our club and I would meet at school and discuss the issue in detail and later share it with other members so that they are aware of it what we discussed that day.

Becoming member of African Children's Parliament.

Attending the children's parliament in Zambia has really changed my life. It was a great honour to witness children from different countries in Africa coming together and discussing issues affecting them, and most importantly, we shared a lot of common problems.

Becoming a member of the climate change activists on behalf of Somali children has impacted me tremendously and has been a dream come true. Although it was my dream to see Somali children's voices heard by the world, being part of the children's parliament has shown me that dreams are valid once you believe in them. And who would have thought that a day would come where African children sit together, discussing issues affecting them and presenting their concerns directly to the duty bearers? In the near future, I am willing to do more representations of children now talking about their problems and the duty-bearers listening to the voices.

My mother.

My mother has always been my biggest supporter, and she always prays I succeed in any campaign or advocacy work that I have done. But, besides my mother, I have had other people that supported me in my efforts and role as a child champion, including my former school headteacher, the child champions and child rights club members who have highly contributed to the different discussions that I have led and most importantly Save the Children who have always supported and ensured our voices are captured in the right platforms, be it in a virtual meeting or a face to face meeting.

I enjoy reading, debating, and representing the voice of the voiceless. And in the future, I would like to start university and study a course on public administration.