She did not have a mental health qualification when she met Iftiin.
She does now.
On Monday, we publish the report about the children she goes to work for every day.
iftin.org/childreport2026/
#IftinGlobal #CounselorSpotlight #ChildMentalHealth #Somalia
Fadumo has been in this work for five years.
She has sat with children who cannot articulate what they carry.
This week, Iftiin publishes the report that explains what she has been witnessing.
Read it Monday: iftin.org/childreport2026/
#IftinGlobal #SaidaAbdi #ChildMentalHealth #Somalia
Next week, Iftiin Global publishes something that has never been documented before.
The mental health state of Somali children by the numbers.
382 children assessed. 6 cities. 12 months.
Save this. Share it. The data is coming.
#IftinGlobal #SomaliaChildren #MentalHealth #ChildReportComing
SAAS Furniture in Mogadishu employs 80 workers. Most were at-risk youth. Some were homeless or involved in crime before they walked through the workshop doors.
Through Iftin Global's vocational training partnership, each received hands-on skills training in furniture-making — and the support to stay.
The company's manager: "They are more professional and better trained than hires from any other source."
We're looking for more employer partners who believe business can be a force for transformation. If your organization works with youth in fragile settings, let's connect.
🌐 iftin.org
#IftinGlobal #SomaliEntrepreneurs #YouthRehabilitation #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #VocationalTraining #SocialEnterprise #Mogadishu
The Galool Tree is where Somali communities have always gathered, to resolve disputes, share wisdom, and restore balance.
Iftin Global's healing methodology is built on this principle. Not an imported Western protocol translated into Somali. A system designed from the ground up using Somali language, metaphors, family structures, and spiritual frameworks.
It took nine years of development with Somali clinicians and international experts. The result: a program communities trust deeply enough to complete at 98%,despite displacement and ongoing insecurity.
Healing at the speed of community.
🌐 iftin.org
#IftinGlobal #GaloolTree #SomaliCulture #CulturallyGrounded #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #CommunityHealing #TraumaInformed
Most job programs focus on skills. But if someone carrying trauma sits in that training, hypervigilant, unable to focus, one conflict away from quitting, the skills won't stick.
Heal 2 Work embeds healing directly into workforce programs. Just one hour per week for 12 weeks. Three phases: emotional regulation, persistence under pressure, and workplace communication.
Results: dropout rates fell from 40% to under 10%. One-year employment retention hit 98%. For every dollar invested, $4.37 returned, nearly double employment-only programs.
Any organization running workforce or education programs in fragile settings can integrate this.
🌐 iftin.org
#IftinGlobal #HealToWork #WorkforceDevelopment #TraumaInformed #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #SocialImpact #EvidenceBased
In 2023, Iftin Global trained 154 young people who were not in school or work across Mogadishu. Skills matched to employer demand: AC repair, carpentry, furniture-making, hospitality.
126 secured employment. Average monthly income: $332, more than five times the national average. Annualized: $3,990 per graduate, exceeding Somalia's per capita income.
Employers reported graduates were better prepared and more professional than hires from any other pipeline.
This isn't charity. It's economic infrastructure.
🌐 iftin.org
#IftinGlobal #YouthEmployment #Somalia #EconomicEmpowerment #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #VocationalTraining #DecentWork
We screened 382 students across Mogadishu and Baidoa. Nearly all exceeded clinical thresholds for psychological distress. Almost three-quarters were severe.
None had previously accessed mental health support. Somalia has zero child psychiatrists. A 95% treatment gap. 0.5 psychiatric beds per 100,000 people.
So we built what didn't exist: 106 trained counselors across 6 cities. School-based programs reaching over 5,000 children. An entire mental health infrastructure — from scratch.
Children cannot wait for peace to start healing.
🌐 iftin.org
#IftinGlobal #ChildMentalHealth #Somalia #MentalHealthCrisis #TreatmentGap #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #ChildrenCantWait
Eid Mubarak from Iftin Global.
Ramadan is a season of reflection, generosity, and renewal. For our team and the communities we serve, it carries special meaning — because renewal is what we work toward every day.
Across six cities, our counselors, teachers, and community workers marked this month alongside the families they serve. Healing, like faith, is a communal act.
To the Somali diaspora, to our partners, and to everyone who believes that no child should carry their trauma alone — Eid Mubarak. May this season bring peace closer.
🌐 iftin.org
#EidMubarak #IftinGlobal #EidAlFitr #Ramadan2026 #Somalia #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #SomaliCommunity #Peace
The world is counting on Africa's youth. By 2035, more young Africans will enter the workforce annually than the rest of the world combined.
But in our programs across Somalia, 40% of successfully placed workers left within three months. A supervisor's raised voice triggered panic. Routine feedback felt like threat. Workplace friction became unbearable.
This is the Trauma Tax — untreated psychological wounds silently destroying workforce investments across every conflict-affected economy.
It's not inevitable. When we embedded healing directly into job training, dropout fell to under 10%. Retention hit 98%.
The fastest path to economic development runs through healing first.
🌐 iftin.org
#TraumaTax #IftinGlobal #AfricaYouth #WorkforceDevelopment #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #EconomicDevelopment #DemographicDividend
Hussein Aden is the eldest of four in a family his father abandoned. School was never an option, his mother earned by washing neighbors' clothes.
Through Iftin Global's vocational training program at a Mogadishu furniture company, Hussein spent six months learning to craft tables, cabinets, and shelves. He was hired on completion.
Today he supports his family, mentors younger trainees, and builds things that last.
This is what opportunity looks like when someone opens the door.
🌐 iftin.org
#IftinGlobal #SomaliYouth #VocationalTraining #YouthEmpowerment #Mogadishu #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #Opportunity
These numbers represent real young people in Somalia, told by circumstance and stigma that their pain was permanent.
Through Iftin Global's community-based trauma recovery program, participants experienced dramatic reductions in depression and anxiety in just 12 weeks. Not years of expensive clinical care. A focused, evidence-based system delivered by Somali counselors in the communities where people live.
Healing scales when someone builds the infrastructure for it.
🌐 iftin.org
#IftinGlobal #MentalHealth #Somalia #HealingAtScale #TraumaHealing #SomaliYouth #WhereHealingMeetsOpportunity #ConflictZones
