Chad

Snapshot*
Population – 10 million
Internally displaced persons – 178,918
Refugees – 234,000 (Sudan), 54,200 (Central African Republic)
Life expectancy – 47 years
Median age – 16.4 years
Infant mortality rate – 100 deaths for every 1,000 live births
Fertility rate – 5.4 children
HIV/AIDS rate – 5 percent
Infectious disease risk – Very high
Literacy rate – 26 percent

Life in Chad
Since 2003, Chad has received 240,000 people from the Darfur region of Sudan, just to the east. Most of these Darfurian refugees have lost nearly everything — family members, friends, homes, farms, cattle. Having endured the journey into one of the most resource-poor environments in the world, they are extremely vulnerable to malnutrition, dehydration, and disease. Meantime, the Chadian host communities are experiencing a catastrophic strain on their natural and social resources as a result of the huge population increase. In February 2008, rebel forces launched an attack on the capital of N’Djamena and forced thousands from their homes. As many as 50,000 people fled into Cameroon alone, while others scattered outside Chad’s capital to live without food and water.

Helping Communities Help Themselves
Bringing Relief
Reaching out to an estimated 60,000 Darfurians - approximately 25 percent of the total refugee population - and 200,000 Chadians, International Medical Corps (IMC) supports refugee camps and internally displaced persons settlements. To reduce the strain on Chad’s internally displaced, refugee, and host communities, IMC provides a support network of services that includes:

•  Primary health care
•  Secondary health care, including surgery
•  Maternal and child care
•  Expanded immunization
•  Nutritional screening and therapeutic and supplemental feeding
•  Health promotion
•  HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention
•  Sexual and gender-based violence prevention

International Medical Corps offers these services through health centers, mobile clinics, and two hospitals. International Medical Corps rehabilitated a hospital in Guereda to bring secondary medical services to all IMC-supported refugee camps. By upgrading the facility, IMC makes emergency care and surgery available to Darfurians living in the barren deserts of eastern Chad. The second hospital, Am Dam, also offers secondary care, and IMC helps by supplying medicine, equipment, and personnel. IMC also provides health care through mobile medical units surrounding Haouich, a displacement camp.

Enabling Self-Reliance
To make its relief efforts sustainable, International Medical Corps’ programs train Chad’s citizens and Sudanese refugees to fulfill the following roles in their programs, including at Guereda and Am Dam Hospitals:

•  Traditional birth attendants to help ensure clean, safe deliveries for Chadian and refugee mothers and their babies
•  Health care workers able to provide primary health care through IMC-supported health posts, mobile clinics, and health centers, as well as nutritional support
•  Community health workers to educate their peers in basic health, such as preventable diseases, including HIV/AIDS

With nationals serving as active members in its programs, International Medical Corps helps to build local capacities by not only providing jobs, but also the skills needed to improve the long-term quality of life. In addition to basic job training, all IMC staff members receive short-term trainings each week to continue their health education, on-the-job supervision and guidance.

You Can Help Build Change That Lasts
While International Medical Corps provides a solid health care support system for the vulnerable populations in eastern and southern Chad, violence and security is a constant threat to the health and well-being of those who live there. With fighting in Darfur continuing, the lack of natural resources is further compounded by the influx of refugees across the border, leaving both the camps and host communities susceptible to malnutrition and hardship. Your support will help ensure that IMC can provide these desolate populations the support and security they need to survive and build their lives within this volatile environment. Click here to help Chad and other IMC programs worldwide.

*Statistics from U.S. Government