Life Skills and Peer Education for Chadian Youth

Despite societal unrest and political challenges in Chad the Blue Cross Life Skills programme is making a difference in the lives of Chadian youth. The team of peer educators and staff have learned how to collect information from the project activities to an on-line database. There is very little evidence based information and statistics available from Chad and therefore this information collecting system is ground breaking development. We will work with the local team  transforming this information in a format that we can show the progress and impact of the life skills activities. Each project has taken a baseline study to see how the youth saw variety of issues at the start of a life skills programme. Now the on-going data collection enables us to compare to the baseline data and show progress within time.

Knowledge is power and it enables services to develop their efficiency and optimise the positive outcomes. This data collection really empowers the local team to better respond to the needs of the local youth and I hope it also convinces you as donors of the importance of this work. Once the data has been inputted I look forward to sharing some of the results with you.

The year 2016 has been very challenging in Chad with an unsettled societal and political climate.

In fact this period has coincided with many strikes involving also young people. Students organized some strikes to claim their scholarship payment arrears. These students also reacted against the rape of one of their fellow student perpetrated by a group of young people. These societal matters make it very evident that in Chad life skills training and education is essential in order to create more democratic attitudes and give the youth values and problem solving skills that reduce negative behavior.

 This year special attention has been given to girls in life skills classes. There was a football match between the girls of the bilingual female high school of Amriguebe and the Lyceum Ibrahim Mahamat Itno Farcha. During and before the event girls from 6 life skills clubs  prepared and organized a cultural evening debate on the gender-based Violence , with a particular emphasis on female circumcision. This activity saw the participation of many young people and was well appreciated by the public. High school girls Doudji Lookar and those of Concord high school jointly hosted the evening. 

It has become evident that more training needs to be done to schools and other institutions to promote the life skills approach. This work has now been started by organizing training, knowledge exchange and information sharing with partner institutions and their staff. This has strengthened links with the Blue Cross Chad and facilitated access of the life skills animators for classes whose teachers and officials were reluctant in the past. 

You see that your support for this project changes the society for a better. At this season for football tournaments, why not sponsor us to keep the ball rolling by empowering the youth in Chad. We thank you for your continued support and look forward to providing further updates soon.

We are so excited that the Blue Cross life skills project in Chad is growing! 2013-2015 was a learning phase, in which the staff and team built the project from ground up, implementing a new kind of prevention activity in the schools and community. Through the baseline study we are able to evaluate the way forward for the development and expansion of life skills to more schools, empowering additional youth to lead a drug and alcohol free life for a population that “does not need alcohol to be deficient,” according to African scholar J. Richard-Molard.

During the last few months, Blue Cross Chad has placed an emphasis on organizing community activities like information meetings in the schools and awareness activities for parents. They used a forum theatre and a radio show to promote the awareness campaigns and spread messages about alcohol and drug-related harm throughout the community. In addition to community awareness, after-school activity clubs and play an important role in the life skills program, empowering youth to engage in meaningful activities in their communities after school hours, where alcohol is readily available! Here’s what some of the club members told us:

“My name is M. D. I'm 21, I'm a girl student in 2nd class, I am the treasurer of the club CVC High School concord. CBT's (Blue Cross Chad) activities have really changed my life. Myself before I drank alcohol. Since I participate in events and I received the information from the CBT on the dangers of alcohol, I also stopped drinking alcohol. Compared to STIs and HIV / AIDS, I was touched by the testimony of the young HIV positive who came to do when we met at the Don Bosco centre. I realized, I did my testing and I decided not to have more partners. I always use a condom with my partner and I ask my friend (s) to do the same.”

 “My name is F. G. F. I'm 21 years old. I was a shy boy, but Blue Cross makes me a boy who now stands before others and speak without fear. I became able to spread the message about the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco, drugs and STIs and HIV / AIDS in the club of my institution. The girls were not interested in our activities. We have really motivated and now we have three girls who are members of the club office and I am very proud for that. Me personally I had sensitized at least 20 young girls and boys. We encounter many difficulties when we approach them. Some reject us other insult us, but we persist. Those that were aware, some come back to thank us because they are released from these things and others not. Many are those who appreciate the work we do so in return I also thank the CBT.”

Last year Blue Cross Chad reached a total number of 22,059 students with life skills lessons across 15 schools, almost twice the number in 2014, and trained more than 80 new peer educators to lead life skills lessons in the high schools. In addition, Blue Cross Chad increased its outreach to 106 events in 12 sites (6 in 2014) among motorcycle taxi drivers.  As we look forward to a new 4-year phase for the project, we are confident that with your support, the project will continue to grow and thrive. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

In October of last year, our awesome Project Coordinator from Chad left the dusty streets of N’Djamena behind for his first journey to the European Union to present at the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance Conference in Edinburgh. Upon surviving London's transportation system and some minor challenges of our digital European world, he found his way to more than 20 participants from Blue Cross member organizations around the world who came together as he took the stage. He was there to present Blue Cross Chad's momentum in creating a new alcohol policy in his country. 

Why is a national alcohol policy so important to our Life Skills project in Chad? General Secretary of the International Blue Cross tells us "We must lobby for new policies to protect citizens, especially youth, from access and exposure to alcohol and drugs in their local communities. IFBC work in policy advocacy is the backbone of its successful interventions. For bottom-up community action to create policy, we aim to mobilise the local Blue Cross together with the project”

In test studies carried out by Blue Cross Chad, children were able to purchase alcohol 100% of the time in local shops. Prevention projects like this life skills intervention in Chad go a long way at empowering youth to make informed, good decisions to lead a healthy productive life. However, it is  also essential that we advocate to creat policies to protect their choices; policies that limit their exposure to drugs and alcohol outside the doors of the schools and in their communities. 

We are so proud of the work that Blue Cross Chad has done and as one of the students tells us: “What we want we can get there and you have to follow her dreams to achieve it.” Salma, Lycée Ibrahim Mahamat Itno High School

Thanks for your continued support and we look forward to sending you more updates throughout the year!

We are so pleased to share some updates with you about our exciting project in Chad. This summer Blue Cross Chad held a camp to train 80 new peer educators.  Peer educators are an important part of the project, their dedication and enthusiasm is what makes the students engage, participate and ultimately change their behaviour. Peer education is based on role modeling and the ability of young people to become leaders and agents of change through empowerment and support.

One of the participants of the training told us:

“I am 17 year old female high school student in Amriguébé 2ndU3. Speaking of the training, I really learned things that are very important for me as a girl. Take for example the issue of sexuality, my parents never had to discuss this matter with me once while today I'm 17 already. So as peer educators trained by Blue Cross, we can fully play our roles in service to others for their awareness.”

Antoher participant told us: “ I am 22 years old I am student at Modern High School in Djougoulié class 2ndU5. .The modules on the topics discussed in this training are very useful for us young people so that everyone in his life can change their behavior. Actually, this training was an honor and a learning moment I will never forget in my life because we referred to the various problems that occur in Chad and indeed only concern youth. Consider the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and risk behavior for HIV / AIDS – the most affected are young people. Many thanks to Blue Cross Chad for this training really allows us to raise awareness among young people in the districts and schools. This is our duty as peer educators to really put this training into practice with others so they feel the result.”

Last year, the peer educators were especially successful at creating after school-clubs within almost all participating schools. The clubs are managed by the learners themselves, including the setup of democratic structures. Each club has elected a board and works in the manner of an associational structure. It has the possibility to access micro grants from Blue Cross in order to implement own projects. The clubs then report back on their activities and are financially accountable to Blue Cross. The experience of “small-scale” democracy and leadership, as well as micro project management and accountability, is proving extremely positive for the young people who gain leadership and management skills. In the Chadian context, this approach is ground-breaking.

We look forward to sharing more updates from the field with you and thank you for your continued support to keeping these youngsters in Chad drug and alcohol-free!