Life Skills and Peer Education for Chadian Youth

"Men, women, boys and girls, let's mobilize to say no to gender-based violence in all its forms. No to female genital mutilation. No to early and forced marriage. No to sexual harassment. No to female exclusion. No to rape in general, rape of minors, and marital rape. No to domestic violence. No to physical, psychological, institutional and economic violence. No to harmful traditional practices. Yes to gender equality. Yes to gender equity. Yes to the empowerment of women and girls, who constitute an important demographic dividend for sustainable development" (Blue Cross Chad).

16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence is an international campagin, that takes place between November, 25th and December 10th. It first started 1991 at the inaugural Women's Global Leadership Institute. Ever since organziations and individuals all over the world organize different events to call for the prevention and the elimination of violence against women and girls each year. Over 6000 organizations in about 187 countries have participated in the Campaign since 1991, with a reach of 300 million people (UN Women, 2021). The theme of this year was: "Orange the world: End violence against women now!". The color orange is a symbol for a brighter future, free from violence against women and girls and is used as unifying theme running through all global acitvities of the campaign. 

Gender based violence is one of the core themes of the Life Skills programm. We think that it is really important to sensitize people about this topic and raise awareness all over Chad. Blue Cross Chad took part in the campaign together with other organizations and the Chadian government. They organized several activities about gender based violence and one large mobilization on december, 10th at the Don Bosco youth center. 

Chris Small is an upcoming artist, who also works as a Peer Educator and an editor for the journal "Echos" from Blue Cross Chad. In his egangement against gender based violence, he wrote the following poem:

What if we stop raping them and respect their dignity
What if we stop beating them like tom-toms but instead protect them from all dangers
What if we give them more love than contempt
And if we stop ridiculing them but rather encourage them to go to school
What if you and I fight for them to have the same rights as us
And if we treat them like queens and not like slaves
They are human, they are not robots
They hurt like we hurt
Let all these crimes against women stop
Stop GBV

If you want to support Blue Cross Chad in their fight against sexual gender based violence, you can support us by donating. Thank you so much for everything you give!

Source: UN Women, https://www.unwomen.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/UNiTE-campaign-2021-concept-note-en.pdf 

Links:

• Visit Blue Cross Chad on Facebook

Blue Cross Chad organised the 9th edition of the mixed training camp for peer educators from July 26th to 31th 2021 in Koundoul (Siloé). The training aimed to strengthen the capacities of peer educators who work in the Life Skills Clubs.
Since 2013, Blue Cross Chad has been organising training camps for its active members working in different clubs at schools, universities and motorbike taxi sites in N'Djamena. This training camp is part of the implementation of peer activities and the development of life skills in the fight against alcoholism, smoking, other drug addiction, STIs, HIV, AIDS, gender-based violence and the promotion of reproductive health of adolescents and youth.

The camp is also a place where the beneficiary members of the life skills project build friendships and get to know peer educators from different places and religions, all over N'Djamena. The participants spend a whole week away from their respective environments and are placed under the supervision of Blue Cross Chad officials. They got trained and equipped to adopt healthy behaviours, free of alcohol and other drugs, and to contribute to the development of a peaceful, just and inclusive society. Each club sends five members for training who are taught about nine themes to meet the needs on the ground.

Equipped with new ideas, behaviors and knowledge, the peer educators are sent back to their Life Skills Clubs, ready to start the new school year. The different themes learned and the skills acquired will enable them to face life and get through their school year, whatever the difficulties. But the camp has not inly influenced their life - it will also help others to adopt healthy and responsible bevaviors. They learned how to share their knowledge with others and multiply what they have learned. 

We are really excited about the training of so many young people! Change begins within the next generation. If only a few youths are being trained today, they will transform their schools and universities tomorrow. Thank you so much for everything you give to support the future of many youths in N'Djamena.

Within the last months, Chad was marked by lots of strikes and protest marches related to the presidential election in Chad. This made it difficult to fully carry out the Life Skills Sessions. Since schools were closed from time to time, school wasn't regularly taking place. Nevertheless, between january and march, 1479 youths took part in 110 Life Skills sessions. The goal of the Life skills sessios is that youths adopt safer behaviour through acquiring new skills. Another important focus of the porogramme is the prevention of gender based violence. Between january and march, 2177 youths took part in sessions about gender based violence either in school classes or at the GBV-clubs. 

Last but not least, different community activities took place. At the moment there are four different groups, which organize different activities for the communities. So far, two of these groups have organized activities where 84 people participated. Members of the community groups support each other to achieve social change. By building relationships, using the ressource of already existing groups and supporting each other in learning, community groups bring social transformation.

Another highlight was a big survey of beneficicaries. In total 181 beneficiaries from high schools and 45 others from motorcyle cab sites were interviewed. Once the interviews are evaluated, they will be used as an orientation for the next programme phase. Surveys are always an important tool for IBC to make sure the programmes really tackle the needs of the community. It is also a great way to get feedback from the participants and see how the programme can improve.

Looking back, we're really happy to see that even though Chad was facing lots of difficulties over the last months, Blue Cross Chad was able to carry out several activities and keep reaching the youth. We're excited for the next season and hope that the situation in Chad allows us to regularly run the programme. 

One of many consequences of Covid-19 in Chad is increased exposure of kids and youth to sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). Even though SGBV has already been a problem before the pandemic, there is a tendency that Covid-19 exacerbates SGBV. Due to closed schools and universities, youth and children stay at home where they can also be exposed to domestic violence. Early and forced marriages are also common in the communities of Chad.

The Life Skills and peer education Project in N’Djamena tackles this problem advocating for the enforcement of laws against sexual and gender-based violence in two districts of N'Djamena. It was found that these phenomena are experienced in these communities, but not reported. Some of the identified obstacles to the reporting of SGBV are the lack of knowledge of the law and shame and fear of stigmatization of victims, survivors and their families. Advocacy helped popularize the law about SGBV and fostered exchange between mayors, judges, other local leaders, parents and youth on these issues. The two mayors of the communes made a commitment to ensure that the laws about SGBV are being respected in their districts. The communities and local leaders committed themselves to reducing amicable settlements that are detrimental to victims and survivors.

Another important part in fighting SGBV is the set up of help structures for SGBV-victims in schools and universities. They set up SGBV-Clubs, where victims can talk about their experiences with peers, similar to Self Help Groups. Further they set up mechanisms to help survivors and victims who want to report SGBV. Blue Cross Chad established such structures in 16 high schools and 3 universities. 44 young people, including 28 boys and 16 girls, have been trained to increase their knowledge on the different types of SGBV, their role, the functioning of SGBV-clubs and the reporting and the support mechanism. They left confident and ready to put into practice the knowledge and skills acquired to help reduce SGBV in our schools and universities.

To contine the fight against sexual and gender-based violence in Chad, we need your support. We warmly thank you for everything you give!

Links:

• Visit our Website

As schools in Chad remained closed after March 23, Blue Cross Chad with their peer educators and Life Skills Clubs have continued virtual life skills sessions via WhatsApp groups and Facebook. Additionally, three partnerships with local radio stations were signed, so that the project staff and peer educators could conduct regular radio emissions in order to spread life skills messages such as stress resistance, peaceful resolution of conflicts, Gender based Violence prevention and myth busters regarding fake news about the COVID-19 situation (“Drinking alcohol does not protect you against COVID-19 and can be dangerous”). The peer educators have also registered various songs and slogans on these topics which were broadcasted on the radios.

The Blue Cross Chad project staff, in collaboration with local politicians, community members and peer educators, conducted door-to-door COVID-19 sensitization campaigns, underlining the importance of respecting the prevention measures. These door-to-door campaigns happened in three vulnerable neighborhoods of N’Djamena and overall over 1000 households were individually reached and sensitized. The initiative of Blue Cross Chad to mobilize local authorities and populations in the COVID response inspired and was followed by many other non-profit organizations.

Luckily some project activities, especially training activities, could still be carried out despite COVID-19 although with smaller participant numbers, in order to respect the national COVID guidelines. Further, IBC has also started a new Webinar series with its project countries on topics such as good governance, alcohol and drug harm, and gender equality. It has been a good opportunity to continue the process of mutual exchange and learning.

Supporting the Chadian Youth is only possible by generous donors as you – Thank you so much for your contribution!