Chad – Conflict & Humanitarian Crisis
Disaster Description
Famine, disease, including HIV/AIDS, and many years of civil unrest and war, has taken its toll on the already poverty stricken north central African landlocked nation of Chad. There are an estimated 500,000 orphaned children. Due to the AIDS epidemic, the number of orphans within the country continues to rise at an alarming rate. There are virtually no governmental programs within Chad to assist these orphans and widows. Additionally, there are few not-for-profit organizations present in the country to assist with this problem. Healthcare is nearly non-existent, water is recovered from mostly contaminated open wells, food and clothing are scarce for lack of financial resources, and there is no free government-provided education or books.
- Total Population: 82 million (July 2018)
- 2% of the population lives below the poverty line
- Only 8% of the population have access to electricity
- The most popular religion of Chad is Islam (at 55%), followed by Christianity (at 40%)
- 3 health professionals per 10,000 people (physicians, nurses and/or midwives)
- Chad is among the countries with the highest infant and child mortality rate in the world: 133 deaths per 1,000 births
- Chad has the world’s third highest maternal mortality rate
- Life expectancy: 49 years for men and 51 years for women
- 3 out of 10 girls are married before the age of 15
- Literacy rate: 22.3%
Israeli Flying Aid’s (IFA) first delegation to Chad deployed in October 2019. Part of the delegation’s mission was the assessment of the humanitarian situation and needs in Chad.
Why We Deployed
In February 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced the renewal of diplomatic relations between Israel and Chad, which had been severed in 1974 due to strong pressure from Arab countries, led by Libya.After two rounds of elections within a very short period of time that failed to yield decisive results and did not permit the establishment of a new Israeli government that will define and strengthen the new diplomatic relations at the state level as well as in the hearts of the people of Chad, our organization decided to take action and deploy a meaningful open civilian Israeli aid mission, a first of its kind after many years in which our organization has been working away from the public eye and the media.
Chad, a landlocked country in central Africa in which foreign aid organizations are at high physical risk, receives negligible and disproportionate medical aid. The UN is working on a small scale under heavy security from fortified bases, primarily ensuring the basic needs of refugees only and not those of the Chadian people.
Chad lacks direct access to seaports, and is surrounded by multiple bordering countries, some of which teeming with different types of terror organizations of varying levels of aggression.
Chad has more than 1.5 million refugees. In the country’s northeast there are Sudanese refugees who escaped from the Darfur region, and in the south, there are refugees who fled from Boko Haram’s reign of terror in the neighboring countries that surround Lake Chad. On top of this, the country has tens of thousands of displaced Chadians who had been working in neighboring countries for many years and fled from terror organizations in those countries back to their homeland with nothing more than their shirts on their backs.
Impact
Health Issues:
- Chad has only one public dialysis unit with 8 dialysis machines only. An additional 14 machines were delivered as part of the Israeli medical equipment shipment. This addition has almost tripled the ability to care for dialysis patients and brought meaningful benefits to thousands of patients in the long term.
- Three anesthesia and ventilation machines were delivered to be used by the new hospital due to open in the next few months. These will enable controlled and safe anesthesia for patients.
- Wheelchairs, crutches, walkers, nurses’ carts, etc. were delivered to hospitals for use by patients with mobility impairment, in addition to single-use birth kits as well as other single-use supplies.
- Blood bank: Blood donation kits, and storage bags were delivered. The entire Israeli mission donated blood together with the staff of FGC, the hosting organization. Chad’s First Lady, Mrs. Hinda Déby Itno, declared the launch of a national campaign aimed at encouraging the Chadian people to donate blood.
Orphanages:
- Two orphanages were stocked with supplies: a solar power system was installed to enable a safer daily routine and more comfortable conditions for the schoolchildren. In addition, school supplies were purchased.
- Dry food was purchased for the two orphanages: a balanced diet, rich in vegetable protein, sufficient for 103,680 meals.
