Community Development  ·  Mogadishu

A classroom
within reach
of every child.

We build and re-roof classrooms with district committees, pay the teaching stipend for three years, and then hand the school over in full.

Our Programmes About the Initiative
Livelihoods  ·  Six Regions

The first loan,
before the
season turns.

Interest-free starting capital for traders, tailors, fishermen and mechanics — repaid into a district fund that lends it on.

How It Works Hear the Districts
Maternal Health  ·  Walking Distance

A midwife,
one hour's
walk away.

Health posts placed by distance, not by population — so that no woman in a served district is left beyond reach.

Support a District Our Method
01 / 03

Local Before All

Decisions sit with the district committee. We advise, fund and account — we do not overrule.

Open Books

Every project budget is posted at the site in Somali, and audited yearly by an independent firm.

A Dated Handover

Nothing runs indefinitely. Each site has a date on which it passes to local hands, in full.

Schools Small Trade Maternal Health Water & Wells Girls' Enrolment District Funds
Children outside their school
07
Years in
the districts
Who We Are

A Somali organisation for the ordinary work of opportunity.

Cawo means fortune. We took the name because fortune, in practice, is rarely luck — it is a classroom with a teacher in it, a loan that arrives before the season turns, a midwife within walking distance.

The Cawo Initiative is a registered Somali non-profit working in Mogadishu and six regions. We work through the district committees, elders and teachers already doing the work — we do not arrive with a programme and look for somewhere to put it.

39 of 41 staff are Somali
Field staff live in their districts
Independently audited each year
88p of every £1 reaches the field
Work With Us
Call the office
+252 61 000 0000
The Record

Cumulative to 31 December 2025.

0
Classrooms built
or restored
0
Pupils enrolled
4,410 of them girls
0
First loans issued
91% repaid
0
Water points with
a paid caretaker
What We Do

Four standing programmes. No pilots we cannot finish.

We have turned down more work than we have taken. These four are what we know how to do well, in the places we know, with people we have worked alongside for years.

01
Schools & the Teaching Year
Classrooms, stipends, enrolment
02
Small Trade & the First Loan
Interest-free revolving funds
03
Clinics Within Walking Distance
Maternal & child health posts
04
Water, and the Dry Season
Boreholes, wells and berkado
A pupil reading at a community school

Schools & the Teaching Year

We build and re-roof classrooms with district committees, pay a teaching stipend for the first three years, and then step back. Fourteen schools have completed handover; none has closed since.

Classroom construction & repair
Three-year teaching stipend
Somali & Arabic materials
Girls' enrolment committees
Fishing boats drawn up on the shore

Small Trade & the First Loan

Modest, interest-free starting capital for market traders, tailors, fishermen and mechanics — repaid into a district fund that lends it on. The fund, not the Initiative, decides who is next.

Interest-free starting capital
Revolving district funds
Book-keeping training in Somali
Women's trade groups
A woman carrying her child on the way to a health post

Clinics Within Walking Distance

Small maternal and child health posts placed by distance, not by population — so that no woman in a served district is more than an hour's walk from a trained midwife.

Maternal & child health posts
Midwife training bursaries
Cold chain & vaccination rounds
Referral transport fund
Camels on grazing land in the dry season

Water, and the Dry Season

Boreholes, shallow wells and rehabilitated berkado, each with a paid local caretaker and a small user fee that covers parts — the reason so many wells outlive their donors, and so many do not.

Boreholes & shallow wells
Berkad rehabilitation
A trained caretaker per site
Maintenance fee schedules
Our Method

How a project actually proceeds.

The same four steps since the beginning, in the same order, for a borehole as for a school. The fourth is the one most often skipped by others, and the one we refuse to skip.

Step 01 · Weeks 1–6

The Sitting

We sit with the district committee, elders and women's groups before any survey is done. What they name is what we cost.

Step 02 · Weeks 6–12

The Open Budget

Costs are drawn up line by line and posted publicly at the site in Somali, with the handover date already fixed.

Step 03 · Months 3–18

Building With Local Hands

Local contractors, labour and materials wherever they exist. Payment follows inspection, never precedes it.

Step 04 · Year 3

The Handover, and After

Keys, accounts and maintenance fund pass over on the dated day. We return once a year, to look and to listen.

Where We Work

Six regions, and the city we come from.

We work where we are already known. Every region on this list was opened at the invitation of a district committee, and each one has a named coordinator who lives there.

Request the District Register

Banaadir

Head office, livelihoods coordination and the largest of the revolving district funds.

Lower Shabelle

Education coordination; the fourteenth school completed handover here in 2025.

Hiiraan

Health coordination, midwife bursaries and the referral transport fund.

Bay

Community liaison, girls' enrolment committees and classroom repair.

Gedo

Water and sites engineering; boreholes, shallow wells and berkad rehabilitation.

Nugaal

Our newest region, opened in 2024 at the invitation of the district council.

Our People

Thirty-nine of our forty-one staff are Somali.

The Initiative is run from Mogadishu by a small executive team and governed by a board of seven, four of whom sit in the regions where we work. Board members serve three-year terms and are not paid.

ED

Executive Director

Mogadishu

Sets the annual plan with the board and signs every handover certificate.

DP

Director of Programmes

Mogadishu

Oversees the four standing programmes and the regional coordinators.

FA

Finance & Audit Lead

Mogadishu

Prepares the open budgets and manages the independent annual audit.

EC

Education Coordinator

Lower Shabelle

Works with school committees on construction, stipends and enrolment.

HC

Health Coordinator

Hiiraan

Sites the health posts by walking distance and places trained midwives.

LC

Livelihoods Coordinator

Banaadir

Supports the revolving district funds and the women's trade groups.

WE

Water & Sites Engineer

Gedo

Surveys, builds and inspects boreholes, wells and rehabilitated berkado.

CL

Community Liaison

Bay & Nugaal

Convenes the sittings with committees, elders and women's groups.

From the Districts

“They asked us what we needed, and then they built that. It is a small thing to say and a rare thing to meet.”

Halimo A.
School Committee Chair · Lower Shabelle

“The loan was not large. What mattered was that it came before the season, and that it was ours to pass on.”

Cabdi M.
Trader · Bakaara Market, Mogadishu

“Before the post opened, a difficult birth meant four hours in a truck. Now it means twenty minutes on foot.”

Faadumo I.
Midwife · Hiiraan

In partnership with

Banaadir Regional Administration Somali Red Crescent SIMAD University Hiiraan District Councils The Diaspora Fund

Gifts are assigned to a named district fund.

You will be told which one, and you will receive that district's accounts at the end of the year.

Support a District
Get in Touch

Write to us, and say plainly what you have in mind.

We answer every letter within five working days — from district committees, from people who want to give, from organisations proposing to work alongside us, and from those who think we have got something wrong.

Head Office

Hodan District, Mogadishu
Banaadir, Somalia

Send us a message