“I went back to school 24 years after dropping out just to make sure my kids could get all the support they need from me to be outstanding students. My eldest child Indaya Mohammed had attended spiritual education when she was younger and she completed it at the top of her class, I was very supportive. However, she failed to keep up the same performance when she started grade one. This was the incident that got me back into school,” says Mohammed Muedin, a 45-year-old grade 8 student at Wate Chimo Primary School.
Mohammed Muedin is the oldest child in his family. He has five siblings (two sisters and three brothers). All of them are primary school dropouts. Mohammed had also dropped out of grade one, until he went back to school after over two decades. There was a lot of resistance, including from his grade two dropout wife, when he first came up with the idea of going back to school.
Mohammed says, “Everyone was saying, ‘Are you crazy’- because I decided to go to school with my kids- given education wasn’t valued for in my community. Initially, my only intention was to create an opportunity to allow me to closely follow my children so that they better perform in their education. After imagine1day started partnering with my school, they made the community aware that it is never too late to be in school.”
Imagine1day’s interventions range from creating awareness about the value of education to ensuring the quality of education via capacity-building training, scholastic material provision, Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) supports, and enhancing local structures and the role of school clubs. It has turned Mohammed’s purpose of being in school from playing his parental role to chasing his dream of being a doctor.
Indaya Mohammed, 13 years of age and a grade six student says, “I feel lucky I am the reason my dad has come back to school, and he ended up being an outstanding student. He is very supportive of me and my two brothers studying here. I am a top-ranked student in my class and both my brothers stood first in their class since they’ve joined the school. I want to be a doctor and my brothers say they want to be pilots. My family is grateful to imagine1day for all the support.”