Eastern Chad Acute Joint Response

Goal: Emergency relief to respond to the large numbers of Sudanese refugees in eastern Chad
Lead Organisation: Stichting Vluchteling
Organisations: Stichting Vluchteling, CARE Nederland, Oxfam Novib, SOS Children’s Villages, Tearfund, World Vision. Local partners: NIRVANA, BAPE, SAHKAL, APSELPA, OTOBPFE, ATALNA, ADESOH, IRC
Duration: May 7, 2024 –
November 6, 2024
Since the start of the war in April 2023, large parts of Sudan are affected by ongoing violence. New refugees mainly come from Darfur, one of Sudan’s regions most affected by violence and where the escalation of conflict continues to force thousands of people to flee. New arrivals often arrive in poor health, malnourished, traumatized and wounded. Over the last year, Eastern Chad has received around 700,000 new arrival refugees, which is more than in the last two decades. New refugees continue to arrive in this area that was already hosting 407,000 Sudanese refugees. As a result, the shortages on public services and natural resources are increasing even further, pushing economically vulnerable families further into poverty, hunger and malnutrition.

Type of response:

The Joint Response

Six Dutch Relief Alliance partners are joining forces to respond to the large numbers of Sudanese refugees crossing the border in eastern Chad. The newly arriving refugees increase the pressure on basic services and natural resources that were already scarce in the area. As a result, vulnerable Sudanese and Chadian families face incredible hardship. Stichting Vluchteling, CARE Nederland, Oxfam Novib, SOS Children’s Villages, Tearfund and World Vision provide relief in seven refugee camps in the region, including shelter, water and sanitation services, mental health and psychosocial support, primary health care, hygiene items and the distribution of food.

The response focusses on the provinces where the people forced to flee mainly arrive: Ouaddai, Wadi-Fira and Sila.

The activities carried out under this Joint Response are the following:

  • Protection: gender-based violence services, mental health and psychosocial support and child protection.
  • Food distribution: providing hot meals to Sudanese refugees and vulnerable Chadian families. Special attention is given to children under two years and pregnant or breast-feeding women to prevent malnutrition.
  • Water and hygiene: for water: drilling boreholes, installation of water tanks and improvement of current water infrastructures in the communities. For sanitation: building latrines including hand washing stations, segregated by gender. For hygiene: promotion of good hygiene behaviour based on the needs and cultural background of the target communities, hygiene kits for families and special female hygiene kits for women and young girls.
  • Healthcare: providing quality primary health care (including curative care, preventive care, mental healthcare, sexual and reproductive health), management of malnutrition by screenings for children under five pregnant women and nursing mothers.

The Joint Response is planning to reach 93.700 people during this response.

CONTACT US

Contact lead organisation Stichting Vluchteling
Kees Ton (stichting Vluchteling)
E: KeesTon@vluchteling.nl