Last month, we officially launched a new round of the Smart Beginnings programme, reaching over 200 internally displaced families across settlements in Hargeisa (Somaliland) and Kismayo (Jubaland). Smart Beginnings is designed to accelerate early literacy and cognitive growth, helping families establish lasting home learning environments through shared storytelling and interactive play. Within IDP settlements, these interventions take on critical importance. Beyond driving cognitive development, the programme acts as a vital support structure for caregivers. It cultivates early relational health by fostering secure, responsive parent-child attachments, and builds maternal social capital. It thereby enhances psychosocial well-being, facilitating access to trusted informal childcare, and creating pathways for economic self-reliance in a context where community networks are often severely disrupted by displacement.
Although the benefits of early childhood development (ECD) are well documented, delivering effective and sustainable programmes in resource-constrained displacement camps requires adapting them to the local context and ensuring they are accessible and relevant to the communities they serve. To make Smart Beginnings successful within Somali IDP settlements, we prioritized several key contextual adaptations:
Accessible venues within the camps. Transportation, safety, and social divisions present significant barriers for displaced mothers seeking support. To guarantee equal access and dismantle systemic exclusion, sessions are held directly within IDP settlements in familiar community buildings. Whether constructed by local communities, camp administrators, or NGOs, these venues are selected to be safe and welcoming. We deliberately use a recruitment methodology that ignores clan affiliations, socio-political status, or disability to ensure any family with a toddler can participate without prejudice.
Somali-language children's books. In a context where early years education is almost entirely absent and children's literature is practically non-existent, providing physical books is a critical first step. We distribute curated Somali-language children's books at every session, enabling displaced families to establish home libraries with 7 books by the end of the programme. These books feature classic tales, translated and freshly illustrated with this cultural context in mind.
Culturally relevant topics. Our curriculum goes far beyond basic pre-literacy, by addressing the realities of displacement and Somali culture. Structured around healthy foundations and early learning, it also covers healthy habits, and maternal mental health. Furthermore, sessions heavily emphasize oral storytelling, elevating a practice deeply rooted in Somali heritage as a powerful tool for passing down wisdom, building toddler vocabulary, and strengthening emotional intelligence without relying on formal schooling.
Bypassing literacy barriers. Recognizing that illiteracy frequently acts as a structural barrier, the programme is explicitly designed so that a mother's educational value stems from her relational bond, not her reading ability. Our sessions train mothers in non-literate "reading" techniques, encouraging them to use translated picture books as visual launching pads for oral narrative creation, graphic storytelling, and picture-based interaction. This is paired with training mothers to transform low-cost, readily available household materials—like empty containers or fabric scraps—into effective tools for cognitive play and problem-solving, bypassing the need for manufactured toys.
Trained local facilitators. To ensure cultural appropriateness and high implementation fidelity, group sessions are exclusively led by trained, Somali-speaking female facilitators drawn directly from local communities. Their deep roots ensure the programme is delivered with authenticity and trust. In a country where the pre-primary subsector is severely underdeveloped and formal early childhood teacher training is virtually nonexistent, upskilling these women creates a pioneering workforce of early childhood practitioners who gain hands-on experience and continue to champion early development within their communities long after sessions conclude.
For children growing up in displacement camps, early learning opportunities are often virtually non-existent, leaving a quiet gap during the most critical window of brain growth. Through these tailored adaptations, Smart Beginnings ensures that displaced toddlers don't miss out on vital milestones, while also giving their mothers a space to build supportive social networks. Week by week, we are watching this programme become much more than just an educational intervention: it is transforming into a shared space of laughter, resilience, and real human connection.
By cultivating a joyful and secure environment for early learning, we are empowering displaced mothers to step forward as the confident, primary architects of their children's bright futures.
