Working for a greener Chad
Onions, turnips, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, okras sprouting in the middle of the Sahel where a World Food Programme (WFP) food assistance for assets project is changing the landscape and the lives of people.
The village of Koutoufou located 800 km from N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, is living a change. Green fields are becoming part of the daily reality in a place that often felt desolate and rocky. For the refugees from Sudan who have settled here, and the local communities who welcomed them, times have changed from over-dependence on hand-outs, to self-reliance.
Khadija Mahamat Atim, a mother of 10 children, cannot stop listing the vegetables she harvests from gardens in Koutoufou: onions, tomatoes, sweet potatoes…
The vegetables from the fields enable Khadija, whose husband is sick and can’t work anymore, to feed her family. She sells the surpluses to improve the family’s income and she helps support other vulnerable families in the community.
“We work together on the land, we talk. We share our production with women who need our help,” says Khadija.
She is among 900 people involved in project in which WFP and its partners provide them with cash transfers to meet their immediate food needs, while they participate in the creation or rehabilitation of assets that will improve their long-term food security and resilience.
The community in Koutofou has been able to grow crops, including a variety of vegetables, on 18 hectares of land, which has helped them diversify the type of food they consume.
Madina Dourban raises 9 children. She appreciates the support of WFP and partners.
“With the cash received in exchange for my work I feel more independent. I can buy food and clothes. Look at my veil, nice isn’t it !”.
In this arid, Sahelian, part of Chad water is key and king. It is not easy to find. It comes with the rains that don’t last for long. Finding ways of accessing, capturing and retaining water to increase productivity is a priority for the community.
WFP and partners have taken this on board and have worked with the communities in this region to construct wells, irrigation canals and water retention dams. The “micro dam” slows the force of water in the wadi during the rainy season and allows the people to grow off season crops.
Mahamat Zene Youssouf lives with his 2 two wives and 9 children in the village of Koutoufou. He is delighted with the impact of the project in the family’s daily life.
“With the money earned during the construction of the dam and the income from the products sale I keep 60 percent to cover the needs of my family, 10 percent is devoted to the purchase of seeds and 30 percent is paid into the community fund.”
He is particularly happy to work alongside his friend, Khader Adam Arba, a refugee from Sudan. Khader fled to Chad from Sudan in 2005 and stayed at the Djabal refugee camp before moving to Koutoufou in 2013, where he lives with is 3 wives and 14 children.
Of the 310,000 refugees in eastern Chad, 600 here. They mostly fled conflict in neighbouring Sudan’s Darfur region and have been here for over a decade. Chadian host communities and Sudanese refugees work together on the project.
Khader says he doesn’t foresee a return to Sudan soon unless there is a guarantee of stability and peace. He feels at home and working together in the project, which started in partnership with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), has fostered social cohesion between the host and refugee communities.
With improved cohesion and collaboration, the communities involved in the project have started participatory savings schemes that enables vital investment.
The community in Koutoufou has bought a generator through their savings scheme. This is used to provide extra power needed for the irrigation of vegetable gardens.
The project in Koutoufou is supported by a financial contribution of the German government that has been essential for WFP and its partner World Concern (NGO partner) to work with the communities.
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