Completed projects:

1. Wheelchairs (seated tricycles). About thirty refugees in the southern camps and an equal number of people in the surrounding villages have paralyzed or missing legs and can only move about by crawling. This project provided each of them with a seated tricycle enabling them to move about the area in which they live. Cost $10,500.

2 . Additional border structure (including well, pump and 4 latrines). Refugees from the CAR tend to cross into southwest Chad at two points where tracks suitable for vehicles cross the border. The refugees must then wait at the border, sometimes for weeks, until the UN can send trucks to pick them up. In early 2008, one of these crossing points had a structure to shield the refugees from the sun and rain as well as latrines and a well producing potable water. The other crossing, near the tiny village of Bitoye, had no facilities. Refugees lived in the bush plain and simple. CRF financed the construction by CARE of a shed, four latrines and well at a cost of $15,500. These facilities are used by villagers when no refugees are present.

3 . Secondary school. Tens of thousands of children in the five refugee camps in south Chad cannot go to high school. Throughout refugee camps in Africa, the UNHCR provides facilities only for primary education. CRF joined with UNICEF, CARE and the Chad Ministry of Education to plan, finance and construct a secondary school, grades 7-9, in Beureh village, located between two refugee camps and in easy walking distance of both. The school also serves local children from the ten villages in the Beureh area. The school has eight classrooms, an administrative office, separate toilet facilities for girls and boys and a well to produce potable water. Classes actually began in November, 2008 in makeshift quarters in anticipation of the new buildings. The UN is paying the fees for all refugee students and will provide their uniforms as well. The total cost of the school is $111,000. Of this amount UNICEF provided $60,000 and CARE gave $12,000. The CRF share was $39,000.

4. Medicines. On each trip to Chad we try to hand carry medicines to the doctors in charge of health services in the camps or for the local population. In 2008, thanks to the generosity of Direct Relief International plus a small amount of CRF funds, we were to provide $26,500 worth of medicines to Dr. Henry Mwambo Esame, a Cameroonian doctor working with COOPI in the Goré camps.  In 2009-10, AmeriCares, an NGO in Stamford, CT, entrusted us with $79,000 worth of anti-biotics that we transferred to the District Medical Officers in Goré and Danamadji.  It also provided us with $2,700 worth of non-prescription medicines and medical supplies which were delivered to a UN doctor, Aimé Namululi, in Danamadji and to the district hospitals in Goré and Danamadji.  The total value of all medicines delivered to health authorities in south Chad is $108,000.

5. Protection of Women & Children. This project is intended to reduce discrimination and violence against women and children through improving understanding of gender roles and human rights, raising awareness of children's rights respecting abuse and neglect, educating both men and women about family planning, and reinforcing existing women's and SGBV (sexual and gender based violence) committees.  CRF financed a three-step program of the Association des Guides du Tchad (AGT) that initially trained women members of AGT from six areas in Chad in  the rights of women and children and in techniques of female empowerment. Once trained, these volunteers  sensitized women and children in the refugee camps about gender-based sexual violence and the rights of women and children.  Finally, the instructors will conduct extensive training of a smaller number of women so that they can continue the effort after the project is completed.  The project cost $31,800.

6. Football field at the Beureh school. When students at the Beureh Secondary School were asked by CRF what they needed most, they replied “a football (soccer) field”.    The school administrator and the Parents Association, helped by the UNHCR, submitted an application in September 2009 that was funded in November of that year at a cost of $4,500. The field has been built and was inaugurated by CRF Board members in January 2010. In May 2010 $850 was transferred to the Parents Association to pay for balls, uniforms and shoes.

7. Oxen and plow units.  The priority need of the 13,000 refugees living at Yaroungou is to increase agricultural production. In cooperation with COOPI, an Italian NGO, CRF has enabled groups of farmers to buy oxen and plow units that increase production by bringing additional land under cultivation as well as making more efficient use of land already in production. These units cost $720 each and CRF initially funded 30 units at a cost of $20,400.

8. Mosquito nets.  The refugees most vulnerable to fatal cases of malaria are children under 5 years of age.  One way to protect those children is to protect their mothers when pregnant.  CRF has started a program of providing long-lasting impregnated mosquito nets to pregnant women in the three camps near Goré in cooperation with the Mentor Initiative (UK).  One thousand one hundred nets were purchased in June 2010 with the first $5,000 provided by CRF.

Total assistance.  In the 25 months from January 1, 2008 to February 1, 2010 CRF has provided assistance to refugees and local people in south Chad totaling $229,700.

Projects in negotiation:

1. Solar power for the health clinic at Dosseye camp. This project will provide solar power to the  health clinic at the Dosseye refugee camp where the nearest electricity grid is many miles away. The center is open 24 hours a day, but the only light available at night is from kerosene lanterns and  the refrigerator also is kerosene powered. Kerosene is expensive and dangerous.  CRF, in conjunction with Johanniter, a German NGO, is in the process of designing, procuring and testing the materials and constructing a solar facility at Dosseye that will provide lighting for the health center and power for a refrigerator in which medicines and immunization materials can be stored. The estimated CRF cost is $8,000.

2. Solar power for health clinic refrigerators. Johanniter has installed solar-powered lighting at health clinics at Beureh, Yaroungou and Moula camps.  Assuming that the solar system to power the refrigerator at the Dosseye health clinic proves reliable, CRF and Johanniter will install similar systems at Beureh, Yaroungou and Moula.  The cost to CRF will be $10,000.

3. Football field at Goré.  Goré village has been the headquarters for the UNHCR and its NGO partners since 2002. One stepping stone in successfully integrating the CAR refugees into the local population, a long-term UNHCR goal,is providing some equity in outside assistance.  In January 2010 the government official in charge of the district in which Goré is located asked CRF to build a football field in the village that would, unlike the field at the local church, would be open to all children without charge.  The cost will be about $5,000.

Other Projects. Other projects that have been discussed with NGOs in the Goré and Danamadji areas include: ***Providing more impregnated mosquito nets and anti-malarial medication for the local population in conjunction with the Mentor Initiative (UK). $7 per net $1.80 per treatment.***Wheelchair/tricycles. There is a need for additional wheelchairs in Goré and surrounding villages, at Yaroungou and at the new camp at Moula. This project is on hold until a plan for repair and maintenance is developed. $16,000.***An effort to assure that girls have equal access to CRF-funded football fields is being developed in association with the Guide du Tchad. $2,000.***A major project to provide school books and teacher training materials to 9,600 students and 140 teachers in conjunction with ACRA (Italy). $39,000.