The collapse of Siyad Barre’s regime was followed by civil war, anarchy and chaos, tragically affecting in particular women and children. In 1991-1992 hundreds of thousands of people died of starvation and famine.

The appalling situation aroused the will and commitment of a group of educated and determined persons in Merka, who, following the guidance of princess Maana ‘Abdurahmaan ‘Ali ’Iise, founded a NGO called AYUUB to mitigate the plight of the mostly vulnerable people, orphans of war and famine in the first place. Maana became the chairperson, a post she retained till her death on 14 December 2007. 

Before the end of 1992, 823 orphans were rescued from death of famine by AYUUB. Instead of opening an orphanage, it was decided to give them a new family by entrusting them to adoptive mothers, possibly in their original community. As for more then 200 of them the place of origin remained unknown, a new village was gradually constructed in the outskirts of Merka. “Ayuub” was the name given to a little child committed to Maana by his dying mother  and became also the name of the village and the NGO.

New adoptive families joined the new community not only from Lower Shabeelle and Mogadishu, but also from Lower Jubba as part of the IDPs arrived to Merka from there. Teachers, aid workers and lonely old people in search of help and protection were welcomed. In the last years the population is gradually increasing also due to marriages of grown up orphans rescued in the early 90es. According to the last census of Ayuub community (in 2013) the adoptive families are 356 with 1878 orphans.

Today, One of the main Victoria is the grown up orphans (among 823 rescued 1992) are educated and now became member of AYUUB NGO and directors of the projects.

Very soon AYUUB gained the trust of WFL INGO, of which became a regular partner, and later of various UN Agencies (UNICEF, UNESCO, FAO), E.U., OXFAM-NOVIB, SIDA, DRC, F.P.S. PAT, STELLABIANCA, . Partnership was established also with other local NGOs like SAREDO, SWISSO KALMO and HISAN.

With the help of these organizations, AYUUB NGO has so far assisted 392 adoptive families with 2073 orphans: those in Ayuub Village and the others in Merka town and 7 other villages (Mushaani, Wagaadi, ‘Addiimoole, Kaytoy, ‘Eel Ahmed, Leh Mooro and Mungiye in Merka district). All the orphans attend Primary School and afterwards either a Secondary School (mainly the School for Agriculture of Merka/Kaytoy) or Vocational Courses at Ayuub Village (mechanics, carpentry, masonry, metal works, electrical installations, dressmaking, hand weaving, cloth decoration, primary health care, computer skills).

Presently AYUUB is paying the fees of 531 orphans attending Secondary Schools: 201 (134 Male and 67 female) at School of Agriculture, 134 (84 Male and 50 female) at New Way and  at 196  (120 Male 76 Female) Arabic Schools.

Extensive training courses for Primary teachers, both pre-service and in-service, were held in addition to those organized by UNICEF and UNESCO. One of them was performed in 2008 and 2009 in partnership with UNESCO PEER and Mogadishu University through an ICT program with a set of 22 computer stations: 85 young teachers (many of them girls) were awarded a Diploma signed jointly by UNESCO, the Dean of Education Faculty of Mogadishu University and WFL. Now they are among the 530 teaching personnel in the 39 schools (with 23201 pupils – 12374 male and 10,827 female) run by AYUUB NGO.

In total, AYUUB has supported the following orphans to complete a professional education:

• 560 (320 male and 240 female) have graduated from the School of Agriculture. Many of them are employed, at least temporary, in projects implemented by AYUUB itself, by UN (mainly FAO and UNICEF) or other NGOs. Others work with farming associations and cooperatives, mostly founded by themselves.