The App Revolutionizing Literacy in Somaliland

Somaliland has one of the worst literacy rates in the world, with most adults unable to read and write. But change is on the horizon, thanks to an innovative app called Daariz.

According to user data, Daariz has now taught over 410,000 people across the Horn of Africa to read and write Somali.

Hodan Artan, a cleaner in Somaliland's capital, Hargeisa, is just one of the many success stories of the app. She never had the opportunity to attend school and was never taught to read or write. However, with the help of Daariz, she started studying on her phone in her spare time and made remarkable progress in just over two months. The young mother is now able to read and fully comprehend some short stories in Somali.

Somaliland has long struggled with illiteracy due to the legacy of the war, the lack of infrastructure, and recurring droughts. According to data from 2022 from the UN children's agency, Unicef, around three in every four adults cannot read and write, and one child in four is not in school. Despite the Somaliland government and Unicef's joint investment in education in 2019, progress has been slow, and big challenges remain.

However, Ismail Ahmed and his charity, the Sahamiye Foundation, believe they have found the perfect formula to work around these challenges. Daariz is a free app that can work offline, enabling people in remote areas and on the move to use it. Mr. Ahmed left Somaliland for the UK as a refugee in his early 20s. After launching a successful money transfer app, World Remit, he created the Sahamiye Foundation to "give back to his community."

During the Covid lockdown, as he was trying to teach Somali to his children in London, he came up with the idea of using "mobile phones to tackle the learning crisis" in his country of origin.

Daariz is a game-changer for people like Mubaarik Mahdi, who could only attend school for two years as a child and struggled to do business due to his inability to read and write. With Daariz, he can now read his customers' names on payment slips and has even started buying books.

Daariz is revolutionizing literacy in Somaliland, offering hope and opportunities for people who never had the chance to attend school or learn to read and write. It's a powerful tool that's helping to bridge the gap between the rural and urban populations and to make education accessible to all.

With the app's success, Ismail Ahmed is confident that mobile phones are the way of the future for education. "It used to take us to go to class to learn our own mother tongue," he says, "and now we have thousands of users who were able to be functionally literate in their own tongue without going to a class."

Daariz is an inspiring example of how technology can be harnessed to make a positive impact on people's lives. It's a reminder that with persistence, creativity, and innovation, even the most challenging problems can be solved. Daariz is not just an app. It's a symbol of hope, a tool for empowerment, and a beacon of light in the fight against illiteracy.