International Mother Language Day is a worldwide annual observance held on 21 February to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.
First announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly with the adoption of UN resolution 56/262 in 2002.
Mother Language Day is part of a broader initiative “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world” as adopted by the UN General Assembly on 16 May 2007 in UN resolution 61/266, which also established 2008 as the International Year of Languages.
When it comes Kenya’s various ethnic groups typically speak their mother tongues within their own communities. There are over 60 languages spoken in Kenya.
Africa Charity Aid is a humanitarian organization that operates in Kenya and Ethiopia with communities respectively in order to observe the issues related to the communities and advocate and contribute support to the communities.
The organization is engaged with different ethnic groups, those who indicate their cultures when the Africa Charity Aid is doing its activities at the areas.
Mohamed Farah Shire, the Chief Executive of the Africa Charity Aid, said “we deal with many various ethnic groups most needy ones, they speak their mother tongue which indicates how good their culture is.”
He also added “mostly we operated in former region North Eastern, the mother tongue which is spoken here mostly is Somali, and that enables us to interact well with Somalis to understand their internal issues properly.”