On World Refugee Day CARE Gives Voice to Women in Chad Camps
A refugee woman in Chad shows off her new solar cooker. ((c) 2008 CARE)
June 20, World Refugee Day, finds more than 230,000 Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad this year, where they have fled since 2003 to escape the conflict in the Darfur region. Over 80 percent now live in poverty. Sixty-six percent are under 17 years of age, the majority girls.
Collecting firewood to cook the meals is a traditional role of these women. As the years have passed, the women and girls must now go farther and farther afield to find wood – over six miles, sometimes even as far as 15 miles from their camps. Far away from their temporary makeshift homes, gender-based violence is an all-too-common reality.
The face of hope. A woman in one of eastern Chad’s refugee camps. ((c) 2008 CARE)
CARE is also helping refugee women achieve greater self reliance and financial independence by providing vocational and skills training. Women are learning such skills and trades as baking, carpentry, soap-making and metal working. The wages they earn help support their families and decrease their financial dependence on the men of the community.
“Being a refugee does not mean being helpless and dependent on others. These women have the power to bring change and hope for themselves, their families and their communities,” says John Uniack Davis, a CARE Deputy Regional Director for Southern and West Africa.
Media Contacts:
Atlanta: Lurma Rackley, CARE USA, lrackley@care.org, (404) 979-9450
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