Kimse Yok Mu flies back 210 Somali students

Kimse Yok Mu Foundation, active in 110 countries worldwide, has brought back its 210 Somali students who were on vacation in their country. The students studying at various high schools and universities across Turkey were happy to be back.

Since August 2011, the foundation has been sponsoring 495 students in total from several East African countries, particularly Somalia, crippled by draught, famine and conflicts. 210 of them have recently come back as the new academic year draws close. The students took a charter flight and landed in Sabiha Gokcen Airport, Istanbul.

The foundation’s director for domestic and educational assistance Davut Kocak said those students will become qualified citizens for their country after completing their education in Turkey. “Today, we have flown back our 210 students that we’ve been sponsoring as a part of Eastern Africa Education Project. We started in 2011 and now we are in our third year. 259 of them have been studying at high schools and 183 at universities. We will have graduating students at the end of this year. Our assistance for Somalia to date is worth over 9 million Turkish Lira and will reach 15 million by the end of this project. This is what we predict to be the total. We had been receiving a high demand for help due to the hard living conditions in the country. So we gave selection tests. And we had a deal with the qualifying students. The deal was that they will go back and serve their country as responsible citizens after graduation.”

Among the students, Nassar Muhammed Ibrahim said, “I am here in Turkey for study. I am currently studying at high school and will hopefully move on to university as well. Kimse Yok Mu has brought me here. I’ve learned Turkish from my teachers. May God be please with them.” Similarly, another student, Muhammed Kasim, said, “I’ve studied here so far. I’m just back from Somalia today. I will be grade four at high school this year and then a university student. But I haven’t decided what to study at university yet. I want to study at Marmara University. My parents thank a lot to KYM, which has sponsored us for all this time. They are very hopeful of us. I hope we can live up to their expectations. I hope we can make every effort and achieve it. Our country Somalia is a very troubled one, as you know. I hope we can get it out of its troubles.”

Accompanied by KYM officials, the students departed for the cities where their schools are. Besides educational assistance, the foundation has been sponsoring their transportation, housing and medical expenses as well.

Published [in Turkish] on Turktime, 28 August 2014, Thursday