Africare-Chad

Africare’s History in Chad

Since 2003, Chad has been hit by spillover violence from the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, and has received about 200,000 Darfurian refugees. (Sudan's Darfur region lies just across the eastern border of Chad.) Also now streaming into Chad are refugees from conflict in the Central African Republic, to the south. Yet violence is not new to Chad. Both civil war and incursions by neighboring Libya plagued Chad for most of the latter half of the 20th century. Today, some 140,000 Chadians remain internally displaced; but except for the unrest from Darfur, Chad is at least tentatively at peace. Poverty, however, is widespread. Although rich in gold and uranium and in recent years an exporter of oil, Chad is primarily an agricultural country. More than 80 percent of the Chadian people rely on subsistence farming and livestock production, but only 2.8 percent of the land is arable and major challenges range from a weak infrastructure to desertification and recurrent drought.

In 2005, Africare began providing shelter, food, medical care and other aid to refugees from Darfur, Sudan, and from the Central African Republic. Africare also assists the Chadian host communities, which have been strained by the influx of refugees. More recently (July 2008), a new project financed by Exxon Mobil Foundation aimed at promoting rural micro enterprises and reducing women’s poverty was started in the Logone Oriental region (Southern Chad). The project is entitled “Initiative for the Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs” (IEEWE).

Africare-Chad Today

Africare currently works in the Batha and Ouaddaï, two regions of Northeastern Chad and in Logone Oriental a region of Southern Chad through four major projects:

• “Batha and Ouaddaï Food Security Initiative” (BOFSI);

• “Initiative for the Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs” (IEEWE);

• “Care and Assistance to Sudanese Refugees in Eastern Chad” (CASREC); and

• “Central African Republic Assistance and Local Settlement Project” (CARAP) with field offices in Abeche, Doba and Gore.

These four projects were financed respectively by USAID, Exxon Mobil Foundation and UNHCR Chad.

 

Country Profile: Chad

REGION: West Africa
CAPITAL CITY: N'Djamena
POPULATION: 9,448,000
LAND AREA: Twice the size of Texas

A landlocked country located in the heart of Africa with a surface of 1,284,000 square kilometers, Chad ranks among the poorest countries in the world though it became an oil exporting country since 2003.  Over 55% of the population lives on less than one dollar a day and 74.5% of the population aged more than 15 is illiterate, including 87.3% of women.

80% of the population lives in rural areas on agriculture and livestock, using traditional and obsolete techniques and depending on capricious rainfall.

As regards democracy and good governance, several elections were organized since 1990 and an anti-corruption campaign was started in 2009.  An agreement for political stability and democracy strengthening was signed in August 2007 between the presidential party and the opposing parties.

These past years, Chad went through several major crises which impacted seriously its economic, social, and political development: intercommunity violence, cross border crisis (from Sudan and Central African Republic) as well as rebellions and recurrent clashes.

A peace agreement was signed between Chad and Sudan in January 2010, putting an end to a crisis that opposed the two countries for several years. Peace talks between the government of Chad and rebel groups based in Sudan are in progress.

Country Stats Life expectancy: 50.4 years (USA: 77.9) Under-5 child mortality: 102/1,000 live births before the first anniversary (USA: 7/1,000) HIV prevalence, ages 15-49: 3.3% (USA: [0.4 - 1.0]%) Physicians per 100,000 people: 4 (USA: 256) People undernourished: 35% (USA: 0%) People with access to safe drinking water: 42% (USA: 100%) Adult literacy: 25.7% (USA: 99%) Annual income, one way to look at it (GDP per capita, PPP US$): $1,427 (USA: $41,890) Annual income, another way to look at it (GDP per capita): $561 (USA: $41,890) People living on less than $1 a day: 55% (USA: 0%) Sources of changes: UNDP Chad website, 2007/2008 Human Development Report, Chad Demographic and Health Survey 2004, National Strategy for Poverty Reduction, Chad Poverty Profile

(Updated, June 2010)