Mohamoud is a grade 9 student in the 2016 school year. He has five sisters and three brothers. What he enjoys most about his school is that everyone respects each other. Mohamoud values respect and is glad that he is at a school where respect is an important part of the community. Learning to speak English has been Mohamoud’s proudest accomplishment so far. In the future, Mohamoud hopes to be a chemist and to be able to help develop his country.

Suhaib has seven sisters and three brothers. Suhaib’s biggest accomplishment is coming to our school and learning how to speak English. Now that he is learning English, Suhaib enjoys reading English novels. His favorite classes are math and English. When not reading and studying, Suhaib also enjoys playing soccer. In the future, Suhaib hopes to become a doctor so that he can help people in his country.

Suhaib lives with his mother and four brothers. Suhaib is proud to be a member of our school community and learning new things he would not have learned elsewhere. His favorite classes are Algebra and Chemistry. With his interest in math and chemistry, Suhaib hopes to be a chemical engineer in the future. Outside of class, Suhaib enjoys reading non-fiction books, especially about history, and playing soccer. Suhaib feels it is important to be there for his family and to make them proud.

Shadrack is the last-born child in a family of six. Most of his siblings dropped out of school. His parents are old and unable to do manual work. Shadrack was born weak and this delayed him from joining school. Though with a small body stature he is older than his peers. His dream is to become an electrical engineer to be able to help people in his village access electricity.Ê

Yasir comes from a family of four sisters and two brothers. Yasir is a talented soccer player and math student. Outside of class, Yasir enjoys playing soccer and helping around campus with community service projects. What Yasir likes most about school are the teachers and how well they teach. Being a talented math student, Yasir hopes to be an engineer in the future.

Khadar has four sisters and three brothers. Khadar is very glad to have earned a scholarship to come to our school. He feels lucky to be able to attend school and have the opportunity to earn an education. For this reason, Khadar enjoys studying and doing well in his classes. His favorite subjects are math, science, and English. He enjoys reading history books and playing football outside of class. In the future, Khadar hopes to be able to travel and see more of his country. Going to the Abaarso School, Khadar has learned a lot about their community’s diversity and more about his country. It is this new knowledge that has inspired him to want to travel throughout his home country to see and learn more about it.

Aamiin grew up in the Hargeisa Orphanage Center, in the capital city of Somaliland. For several years before coming to Abaarso he attended Abaarso's tutoring program in the orphanage, where he was taught by older Abaarso students. He excelled in this program, and was admitted into Abaarso's first class of 7th graders in 2013, along with three other students from the orphanage. Given his background, the fact that he is at Abaarso makes him a real success story.

João was born in Sofala province. He is a playful and smiling boy with many interests. He likes to play with friends in the same neighborhood. His father died in 2012, victim of illness. In life, he was selling products at the local market. After some time, his mother remarried, but the current husband pays no attention to his stepchildren. He is making little jobs as a driver here and there and he only provides food for the whole family with his low income, while the mother plants rice to help her husband with the household expenses. As there is no money to support the school expenses for the stepchildren, João hardly can fulfill his dream of becoming a teacher.