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Education: A Challenge to Terror

This article originally appeared in The Huffington Post.

In Arabic, Al-Shabab means "The Youth." Universally, youth is a time of growing, of change. It is a time when much is new and not yet established. Research in psychology describes youth as being in a "future-oriented position." Youth involved in the militant group Al-Shabab are no different. They are seeking to build lives and opportunities. Yet the pathways to a future chosen by those involved in terror are destructive, to themselves, their own communities and, increasingly, as the recent attacks on the Nairobi mall demonstrate, to a global community as well.

Al-Shabab has its roots in Somalia, a country that has been at constant war for more than twenty years. Hundreds of thousands of people have died, in conflict and through natural disasters of drought and famine exacerbated by the conflict. Millions have fled their homes to neighboring countries, most living as refugees in Kenya and Ethiopia. Scores of buildings have been destroyed. Livelihoods have been on hold -- life has been on hold -- for generations. State collapse and attacks on schools have destroyed possibilities for education. From the 1980s to the present, the richest quintile of 13 to 17-year-olds in Somalia has had on average less than six years of education; the poorest less than one.

On a recent visit to a school in Nairobi, a teacher asked his almost entirely Somali class: "Who will be the next teacher in the Republic of Somalia?" The children chorused back: "Us." Many of these young refugees are in Kenya in search of education. "My intentions were to come to Kenya to learn," said a young Somali man who, despite being 17- years-old, comes to primary school every day at 6 a.m. to review his lessons before the teachers arrive. The choice of education has been clear to him: "It makes your life. It makes your future."

To read the complete article, please visit The Huffington Post.

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