How Soccer Aid is saving lives in Chad
...ultimately learning how to keep their children safe from illnesses such as diarrhoea. I walked into a courtyard to find a sea of women, covered head to toe in a...
Bringing hope for children in West Africa
Since December last year, UNICEF has been warning of a looming food crisis in the Sahel region of West Africa, where more than one million very young children will suffer from life-threatening malnutrition this year. I've just returned from a visit …
The humanity of humanitarian work
What’s this then? A whole day dedicated to humanitarian workers? Don’t they get enough air time as the face of disasters, recounting tales of untold suffering on our TVs? Well, no, actually. The sad fact is that regardless of how …
A slice of life in N’Djamena
I am standing on the bridge over the Chari, the river which forms the border between Chad and Cameroon. I came here as a sort of a pilgrimage – one year ago today, this bridge was a jostling mass of …
When the aid provided leaves people divided
A few rapidly snatched possessions, some sketchy shelters made from branches and grass and barefoot children being herded out of sight by fearful parents. You have seen it before on TV: another population fleeing from a vicious low-level war. But …
Pots, pans and protests: the fight for natural resources
Last Sunday morning, N'djamena city rang with the sound of thousands of clashing pots and pans. It was a few minutes of noisy defiance in Chad's capital, an indoor expression of rage. Indoors, because when women demonstrated in the streets …
The challenges of humanitarian work in Chad
The first time I visited Chad in February last year, I picked the wrong weekend. It was the weekend that the rebels reached N’djamena. The day had started normally enough – breakfast of dry pastries in the terrace restaurant overlooking …
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