Amina’s story

Learn about the Internally Displaced Person site near Koukou in eastern Chad. Read Amina’s story.

Tuesday 26 June 2007

Amina, 14, with her baby boy. Her village was attacked and her husband killed. She walked for two days in the bush to reach a safe area and evenutally found this IDP (Internally Displaced Persons) Camp near Koukou. Repeated attacks on villages in eastern Chad have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Grouped together in camps, children and their families are living in basic shelters and lack food, water and access to medical care. The looming rains are bringing the risk of deadly conditions like diarrhoea and malaria, especially for children, and pregnant mothers.The gathering storms will also make the delivery of aid a much more difficult task, with vehicle tracks disappearing and swollen rivers becoming extremely hard to cross - meaning help needs to arrive as soon as possible. Many more resources are needed from international donors and governments to respond to this growing crisis. Chad is rated 171 out of 177 according to UNDP’s 2006 Human Development Report and is therefore considered one of the poorest countries in the world; an estimated 80% of the population lives on less than $1 a day. Save the Children plans to reach a total of 40,000 children in eastern Chad, working in particular in the IDP (Internally Displaced Person) sites of Aradib, Habile and Dogdore. Amina*, 14, fled her village after her husband was killed. With her eight-month old son, she hid in the bush and eventually reached an IDP camp (for internally displaced people) near Koukou. Even in the camp, Amina doesn't feel safe and is concerned about how she will feed her baby.

Repeated attacks on villages in eastern Chad have forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes. Children and families don't have basic supplies, malnutrition levels are rising in some areas, and education facilities are almost non-existent in many IDP sites.

"I'm a widow. My baby boy is eight months. When the Arabs attacked my village my husband was killed, like most husbands in the village.

"I ran away from my village looking for safety with other villagers. It took us two days walking into the bush to reach a safe area. Lots of my friends have been abducted, killed and raped. Others are still missing.

"My brothers helped me make a grass shelter and an organisation gave me a plastic sheet. But it got spoiled when the rains came. When it started to rain I left my shelter with my baby to look for somewhere dry. Eventually we settled in this IDP site.

"In the site most people are trying to cope with their own distress. Nobody has time to support us (girl widows).

"Every morning I leave the camp early (around 4 am) to collect wood in the bush. At about noon I come back to the camp. I try and sell the wood for about XAF 500 (just over US$1), which means I can buy millet or sorghum for our daily meal. After that, I go to fetch water. Getting water is very difficult because there are only five hand-pumps for the 12,000 people living in the site. We can spend two or three hours there. This is my daily timetable, like all the other widows here in the camp. We don't have any way of making money other than selling wood.

"When we go to collect wood we're scared because the outside the camp isn't safe. Even inside the camp, women and girls are regularly abused. I know of 50 rape victims who died because they didn't get medical assistance.

"I don't just feel unsafe. My greatest fear is hunger. We only get one koro (three and a half kilos) of bulgur wheat every two months. Also, with the rainy season coming, a lot of people like me don't know where to sleep."

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*not her real name
Top Photo credit: Jennifer Morgan