Raising the Roof on Our Mental Health Project in Somaliland

We have been in Somaliland over 5 years now. Covid created a big hiccup, mainly by making travel so much more difficult for a year. We ended up doing a lot more virtually than we had ever imagined or intended. Even now, the majority of the therapy we are providing is virtual. The psychotherapy skills class we are providing to Somali students are also virtual at this point.

Thanks to Salah’s tireless efforts, we have the authority to grant bachelor’s degrees in psychotherapy through Acceptance and Change University. Our goal in the future is to be able to offer students a master’s degree in therapy, so that native Somalis can meet their own community’s psychotherapy needs.

The political situation in Somaliland has changed dramatically over the last year. The stability that had been a hallmark of Somaliland for over a decade has been shattered by conflict on its eastern border. We are saddened by the loss of life that affects everyone in this region that has already experienced so much tragedy through war, drought, and famine.

About 2 years ago, to increase our own stability in Somaliland, we decided to build a permanent structure. We were able to find an acre of land in a good location on the outskirts of Hargeisa, with two dry creek beds running through it. The creek beds lowered the price for us, but we saw them as an opportunity.

Salah and I had been observing different water conservation methods around the region. Based on what we saw, we decided to build a large water storage facility on the site. We hired a crew of about 10 Oromo Ethiopians to dig a 27-foot-deep cistern, 12 feet in diameter. Oromos have a long history of being expert diggers, work they do entirely by hand. It was inspirational to see their tireless efforts in the hot Somali sun with nothing but shovels, picks, ropes, and buckets. A neighbor made the hole more permanent by placing steel-reinforced concrete in the cistern. We had another, smaller cistern built on the streambed to act as a filter for any incoming water.

Once the cistern was completed, we waited anxiously for our first rainfall. After a few false starts, we were amply rewarded. The cistern has provided our ongoing construction projects with a seemingly endless supply of water. Our workers have even started a garden.