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University of Hargeisa:
Letter of Appeal
University of Hargeisa
Tel: +002522525763 (Telesom), Fax: 002528285499 (Soltelco),
Email Address: administrator@hargeisauniversity.net Site:
www.hargeisauniversity.net
TO: The Somaliland Diaspora and People of Goodwill
FROM: Dr. Hussein A. Bulhan, President
DATE: December 18, 2008
RE: Appeal to Assist the University of Hargeisa
As you may know, I accepted requests from various quarters
(including members of the university council and faculty) that I
lead the University of Hargeisa from its latest crisis which
threatened its very survival. Before I accepted the job, I was busy
with my clinical work and with developing inpatient and training
components to complement the outpatient services I have been
providing during the past several years for trauma victims and other
problems in living. However, I temporarily suspended those projects
to help not only save the University of Hargeisa but also the
contributions of those who preceded me by setting UoH on good
financial, management, and academic standard.
The University of Hargeisa is the largest university in Somaliland.
It has a total of over 3,000 full- and part-time students
distributed in the faculties of law, medicine, business, information
and computer technology, education, and Islamic Studies. In
addition, it has the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution,
the Institute of Research and Development, and the Department of
Mass Communication now integrated in the Faculty of ICT. The campus
has sufficient space for further expansion, although we are
exploring to acquire more expansive land for future growth.
Since I assumed leadership of the university two weeks ago, I and
the Vice President for Academic Affairs (Mubaarik Ibraahim Aar)
carried out comprehensive assessment and discovered some problems
that demand immediate action while others require long-term and
sustained work in the future. We also found the great potential this
university has for the youth and future of Somaliland. We now have a
six-month plan for action to solve the problems and nurture its
potentials.
We send this appeal for help by offering a menu of programs that
cost you little but go a long way develop the future of Somaliland
and its youth. The menu of programs includes:
• Join our “the Mentorship Program” to assist poor and deserving
students intellectually and with tuition fees, defraying a total of
US$ 200.00 per semester or US $400.00 per year to cover tuition fees
and books. In this program, the mentors and students will be
randomly matched, their photographs and emails exchanged, letting
each pair directly communicate and develop mentoring relationship.
Each of us found a helping hand in our personal and educational
development. In joining this program, we repay a debt from our past
and set an example for the future.
• Volunteer to our “Visiting Professors or Lecturers Program”
allowing members of the Somaliland Diaspora to visit home and catch
up with news from the ground while sharing knowledge or skills to
next generation of Somaliland leaders in different fields. We now
have three such guest professors—Abdiwaxid Sheikh Osman from the
University of Minnesota Law School, Idil Guuleed of Brunel
University (in West of London, UK) graduate school of Mathematics,
and Engineer Ali Abdi Hersi from Canada—all in the Quest Program
sponsored by UNDP and explained in its website.
• Participate in our “Academic Resource Mobilization Program” to
collect necessary resources like books for our library, computers
for the computer center, audio-visual equipment for our nascent Mass
Communication Program which we hope will become a full-fledged
faculty in the near future. Some of you had contributed books,
vehicles, and computers in the past. We need your help again. Most
urgently, we need language lab equipment for learning English and
for our sciences and technology faculty.
• Assist our “Inter-University Collaboration Program” by linking the
University of Hargeisa with your alma mater or a university in your
areas. We need graduate studies for our students, retooling for our
teachers, access to e-library, laboratory equipment, strengthening
existing teaching capacity, and developing new faculties. For
instance, Asha Roobleh, Fouzia Ismail, and their social work
colleagues are linking us with the University of Carleton in Canada
to help us develop a Social Work Faculty at the University of
Hargeisa.
• Join our “Physical Expansion and Enhancement Program” to not only
increase currently limited space for classes and staff offices but
also improve the landscape and buildings to turn the university into
an enabling and learning environment. For instance, Yuusuf Warsame
Siciiid, an architect with extensive training and experience, is
helping us by designing and planning physical expansion and
enhancement of the university.
As some of you know, I have been a member of the Somaliland Forum
and the Diaspora for many years before I moved to Somaliland to do
my part in rebuilding the peace and lives broken by succession of
wars. What keeps me engaged and invigorated in Somaliland, despite
the many material and personal challenges, are my commitment to heal
injuries of the past and help forge a better life for the next
generation. Although I have the opportunity and capacity to earn far
better income and live more comfortably abroad, be assured that I
get in return something money can neither match nor replace.
You too can contribute while abroad by giving a little of yourself,
a little of your time, a little of your income. A university is not
only a venue for imparting knowledge and skills. It is also a milieu
for developing a better world than we find or endure today. It is
the best and most humane means to change. And what you give now, you
shall somehow get back.
In short, then, the University of Hargeisa needs you!
The leaders of tomorrow need you!
And Somaliland needs!
I know we literally moved mountains—bringing down a dictatorial
regime and building a peaceful, democratic Somaliland—when we
directed our heart and hand to a common goal.
If you find within yourself a desire to help in any of the above
ways,
please write me at drbulan@hotmail.com
to declare your decision or find more information.
THANK YOU!
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