ATM Fellowship 2021 comes to Baidoa, Somalia!

ATM Fellowship 2021 comes to Baidoa, Somalia!

We are delighted to announce that the ATM Fellowship will kickstart in September, in (you guessed it) Baidoa Somalia! The announcement comes off the back of a week of campaigning and fundraising this week in line with World Youth Skills Day 2021. This year’s theme was “Reimagining Youth Skills Post-Pandemic” and we have been thinking long and hard here at the ATM about what that means for our young people.

At ATM, the pandemic has revealed a stark inequality gap between the haves and have-nots and has galvanised this scholarship programme to reverse and eradicate those social  inequalities within Somali society. As it stands, young people from marginalised clans are excluded from attending university due to historical inequality, which in real terms translates into a lack of access to secondary schooling, funds for higher education or the ability to travel long distances to get an education in the first instance.

This is why we are committed to ensuring our Fellowship reaches the most vulnerable. Our core focus is on young people who are either socially or geographically isolated from opportunities to further their education. Baidoa is a unique starting point as it is a major city in Somalia but draws in students from more rural parts of the country. This scholarship will be able to help rurally-isolated young people overcome some of the challenges mentioned above to benefit from a free education.

The pilot Fellowship will support five students in its first year in partnership with the University of Southern Somalia. The scholarship will be specially reserved for students from:

Marginalised clans

Aged 16 – 35

Eligible for university study but unable to pay

50% female representation as per our commitment to gender equity and equality.

Professor Eno, Principle of the University of Southern Somalia said: 

“This has been my life’s work. I have committed my entire academic, professional and personal life to raise awareness about the impact of this type of inequality in Somali society. I am delighted to work with the Anti-Tribalism Movement on this pilot project and hope that this will benefit hundreds of more students over decades.”