The Daily Struggles of Life in Chad
You are more than welcome to come join us in helping Chadians rise above these difficulties, especially if you have experience in the areas listed in the testimonies below: agriculture, small business, water, education, veterinary services, health and transportation. This being said, more necessary than coming with experience to Chad to help is that you come with the heart of a servant to help others while at the same time learning from Chadians what they have to teach you.
If you are unable to come to Chad, you can always participate by touching Chadian lives by helping non-governmental organisations (NGOs) do their work. In the solutions section, we list the NGOs who truly work for the benefit of Chadians, and we invite you to assist them in every way you can.
"Our highest priority, it's to modernise and encourage modern farming in our region" - Village Chief of Bandaro, in the Guéra
"We have food and farming needs in our villages: we would like to set up granaries, and to see the provision of farming materials like hoes and ploughs. This would allow us to harvest enough food to attain agricultural self-sufficiency" - Mahamat Dagash, the Chief of the Mebra (Baraïn) village in the Guéra
"Our greatest need, it's for millet seed to plant before the rainy season comes. Nour sub-prefecture of Guéréda has seen a massive arrival of Tama refugees from Sudan in 1994. These came back, thinking the famine that had made them flee were over, but this isn't the case. Since the Tama villagers cannot feed their own families because of the 1994 famine and the scourge of locusts in the region, they find it hard enough to feed the families of these refugees, let alone their own families. And this is why we need help to meet our food needs as well as those of the refugees, as our top priority." - The Tama Sultan, Guéréda, Ouaddaï
"We have needs in the realm of agriculture, for hoes, for ploughs pulled by animals and able to be pushed by farmers themselves. These things would help us to increase our millet harvests. We would also like to learn how to use these tools and how to cultivate our fields for optimal yields." - Canton chief of Mollou, Ouaddaï
"Our greatest need is for millet seed to sow before the rainy season." - Ousman Begla, Chief of the village Baranga I, and Badjang Kawoul, Chief of the Gadang Quarter in Mbarlé
"Since we are mostly farmers, we hope that agricultural development work would be established in our region. Hoes, hand ploughs and regular ploughs would help us increase the yield of our crops. We would also like to teach our people how to use modern farming tools to produce optimal yields. Since we live along the Chari River, we often think about how we could obtain motorised pumps and personal assistance to establish irrigation for our fields." - Badjang Kawoul, The Gadang Neighbourhood Chief in Mbarlé
"There is a great need for villagers to have access to insecticides, ploughs and hand ploughs to help us harvest enough to meet our food needs ourselves." - The Sultan Moussa Ibedou, The Chief of the Dar Dadjo I Canton
"We need a women's centre, so that women can learn a skill such as sewing, with the goal of obtaining economic self-sufficiency." - The Tama Sultan, Guéréda, Ouaddaï
"Chad is agricultural and pastoral country. Among other things, her people need the very basics that complete life, and that of their companions (the garden, the field, the herd...) Thus, we have an urgent need for the renovation of wells dug in the 60s..." - Kodou Choukou, Son of the Chief of Mandjoura (Moussoro)
"In the Baraïn villages that are far from commercial centres, the greatest need is the lack of wells in our villages. A lack of water has caused many Baraïn to abandon their villages. Water is essential to life, but unfortunately there are several Baraïn villages where the inhabitants have to walk more than 4 km to attain a water source." - Mahamat Dagash, The Mebra Village Chief in the Guéra
"We have the desire to have someone come and help us construct rain barriers to retain the water from the rainy season for the entire year, and for the construction of a water tower in Guéréda." - The Tama Sultan, Guéréda, Ouaddaï
"The primary need that we have, it's the need for wells in the villages. Although we live along the Chari River, we find that the water we draw from the river makes us sick. Especially between the months of March and May, when the river dries up a bit, diarrhoea spreads in the region, and causes many deaths. Water is essential to life, but if the water source is polluted, this puts our entire population in danger, especially the children." - Gaourang Alifa Kassalou, the Canton Chief of Miltou, Chari-Baguirmi
"There remains some specific needs that we wish to convey to you on behalf of our people, especially those who live far away from the bigger towns. As we see it, the greatest need we have is the lack of wells in the villages. Water is essential to life, but in several Dar Dadjo villages, our people have to walk 4 km to arrive at a source of drinking water." - The sultan Moussa Ibedou, the Canton Dadjo I Chief, and the Sultan Khartoum Djasam, the Canton Dadjo II Chief
"Chad is agricultural and pastoral country. Among other things, her people need the very basics that complete life, and that of their companions (the garden, the field, the herd...) Thus, we have an urgent need for schools so that our children, deprived of their right, can go to school..." - Kodou Choukou, Son of the Chief of Mandjoura (Moussoro)
"There is a great lack of schools in the Mogum region. There is one school in Katch village, which starts at the CM I school lever and two other schools in Lawota (CE I) and in Hadjeradoum (CP II). Very few youth go to school and many young people would rather give themselves to the work in their fields because of the material and food needs they have. The number of children who make it through school is very low in the region and this deserves our focused attention.
"For the aforementioned schools, we notice a lack of trained instructors. More often, there are volunteer workers without any training. In the entire Mogum region, only one instructor who learned how to teach in Ketch village. The young people and adults face the same difficulties for their education. There is no literacy project for adults anywhere in the region." - Marba Meundeung, ISSED researcher
"The greatest need we have where we live is the education of our people. As we have already found assistance in several areas essential to life, I would like to move on to the instruction of my people. Given the insecurity that rules in our region from time to time, I see the truth of the proverb that says, 'To open a school is to close a hundred prisons.' " The Mollou Canton Chief
"The development of an education system is one of our greatest needs that I would like to mention, the need we have to have trained teachers and solid buildings for the village schools." - The Sultan of the Tama, in Guéréda, Ouaddaï
"It is important that many young people, with the lack of school buildings, leave the Bon Goula villages for other towns or villages where they can continue their studies. All this is insufficient to facilitate the development of this region." - Djibrine Abakar Haroun, The Chief of the village Bone I, Guéra prefecture
"After farming assistance, our greatest need is that of constructing mosques and schools with heated bricks, and not out of straw. We are very interested in seeing the education of our people and the construction of schools completed in an adequate manner." - The Sultan Khartoum Djasam, Chief of the Dar Dadjo II Canton, in the Guéra
"The primary need that we would like to mention to you is the need for schools that are accessible to the entire rural population. There are not any schools on the north bank of the Chari River. Only those who live in Kokaga or in Sarh can send their children to school. This situation leads to the displacement of the Tounia to urban centres. If an educational program were put in place on the north side of the Chari River, this would encourage the Tounia to stay in their region." - Nahor Dagal, The Chief of the Kokaga Canton, Moyen-Chari
"We have a great need for veterinarians to come and work in our canton." - The Sultan Khartoum Djasam, Chief of the Canton Dar Dadjo II
"Chad is agricultural and pastoral country. Among other things, her people need the very basics that complete life, and that of their companions (the garden, the field, the herd...) Thus, we have an urgent need for maternity hospitals so that our women and sisters can at least consult a nurse instead of travelling many kilometres to see a doctor..." - Kodou Choukou, Son of the Chief of Mandjoura (Moussoro)
"In the Bandaro region of the Mogum, the village chief really desires for dispensaries to be established that are well stocked." - Marba Meundeung, ISSED researcher
"We have a need for dispensaries and medical centres that are accessible to the entire population, for the dispensaries that now exist in Melfi and Ngogmi are too far away to meet the needs of the village inhabitants who are far from commercial centres, especially in the case of serious wounds." - Mahamat Dagash, The Chief of the Village of Bandaro, Guéra
"We have needs for dispensaries accessible and well-provisioned with qualified medical personnel who could help the people rise above the health problems that they find so difficult to rise above. In the realm of health, there is also the need for training of midwives to help diminish the child mortality rate found in our villages. The only hospital in Guéréda is not enough to meet the many needs of the Tama villages, due to the lack of qualified doctors and sufficient supplies of medicines." - The Tama Sultan, Guéréda, Ouaddaï
"We also have great medical needs. Accessible and well-stocked dispensaries would help villagers rise above the illnesses that they find difficult to rise above." - Sultan Ousman Begla, The Chief of the Village Baranga
"The most common medical problems that the people of my region experience are these: snake and scorpion bites, malaria, diarrhoea and dysentery, meningitis, conjunctivitis, bronchitis and pneumonia, and hernias." - Sultan Garouang Alifa Kassalou, The Chief of the Miltou Canton
"We would also mention the need for dispensaries to be accessible to the entire population, for the dispensaries that now exist are not numerous enough are too far to meet the needs of the villages that are far from commercial centres." - The Sultan Moussa Ibedou, the Chief of the Dadjo I Canton, and the Sultan Khartoum Djasam, Chief of the Dadjo II Canton, in the Guéra
"Where we live, there is a great need to improve the roads so they can be used even during the rainy season." - Mahamat Dagash, the Chief of the village of Bandaro, Guéra
"I attribute at least a portion of the insecurity in my region to the isolation of our villages. I also see road improvement as a first step towards the development of my region." - The Chief of the Mollou Canton
"In the Guéréda region of the Ouaddaï, the roads leave much to be desired. Between the need to drive over solid granite shaped in the form of the sharpest knife, and the steep descents of the wadis of clay and calcium, the road between Am-Zoer and Guéréda is practically useless during the rainy season. The quality of the road discourages merchants from passing through Guéréda, even in the dry season. Access is impossible to the larger trucks. The result is that Tama agricultural products are sold at very low prices, the farmer not having the opportunity to sell their products to regional marketplaces." - The Tama Sultan, Guéréda, Ouaddaï
"We still have a need for the improvement of roads in our Canton." - The Sultan Moussa Ibedou, the Chief of the Dar Dadjo I Canton
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