Eastern Chad Acute Joint 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.