Life Skills and Peer Education for Chadian Youth

Dear valued supporter,

In this report we are excited to share some updates from N’Djamena!

During the past quarter, BC Chad has continued its activities in schools and with motorcycle taxi drivers at full speed, reaching out to more than 12’000 learners in 7 different high-schools as well as to taxi drivers of 7 different sites. At the same time the project has been busy designing a baseline study. The baseline was successfully conducted during the month of May in all seven participating schools as well as motorcycle taxi stands. It was also conducted in seven “control schools” (schools not yet participating in the programme) as well as “control taxi stands.”  The control schools all have an interest to join the programme at a later stage.

According to the project coordinator, Eloi, the project was welcomed by all schools: “I was surprised by the welcome, especially at the control schools. I have for example in mind a girl’s-only-school where the manager asked us to come and start the programme next year. Even the regional delegate asked us: ‘why do you limit yourselves to only seven institutions’? There are great expectations.” Statistical information about youth alcohol and drug consumption is scarce in Chad and hence we are eagerly expecting the results of this survey in August.

Chad has highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the world if abstainers are excluded. Besides this, the spread of substance abuse among the young motorcycle taxi drivers represents an additional threat. Actually, alcohol use as well as the use of a prescription drug called Tramadol are rampant among this group and lead to frequent road accidents putting at harm the drivers as well as the clients.

These facts are the reason why we help the Blue Cross of Chad to implement a large prevention programme in the capital city of Ndjamena. The Principal of Djougoulie Modern high school told us:

“We used to punish unrulypupils, butthe Blue Crosshas complementedthis withmethods other thansanctions.Their life skillssessionsbring a lot. At firstthe studentswere not interestedbut seen the importance ofvarious topics thatare debated, now they are more and more motivated andhave changedtheir behavior.Those who smokedat schooland those who came toschooldrunkabandonedthese badhabitsevenif they maybe still doitin secret.Blue Crosshas really helpedthe students ofDjougouliemodernhigh schoolto change their behavior.“

Thank you for your continued support!

For the first time ever in N’Djamena this year, the Blue Cross Chad’s high school soccer tournament included a girls team – with seven participating schools! Both finals took place on Saturday 11 April and were in attendance by more than 600 people. The girl’s final was won by Lycée Moderne de Djougoulié - the newest school to participate in the Blue Cross Chad's Life Skills program. The boys final was won by the Lycée Félix Eboué.

The opening ceremony was presided by the Head of the National Programme to Fight Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs (PNLATD), which is under the Ministry of Health. A special emphasis was given to the new law on tobacco with sensitization events around the tournament. According to Eloi, Program Coordinator for Blue Cross Chad, Chad is only the 4th sub-Saharan African country having passed a tobacco bill (on 31 March 2015). The anti-tobacco law will come into effect on 9 November 2015.

After-school activity clubs and awareness campaigns are an important part of the life skills program in Chad. Activities like soccer tournaments are used to create visibility and raise awareness among the community about the dangers associated with alcohol and drug use. They are used to empower communities and youth to take ownership of important issues like reducing the sale of alcohol next to schools and reducing access to alcohol purchases for youth (Recent test purchases organized by the Blue Cross of Chad have shown that 100% of the test purchases by children as young as 10 were successful. Easy accessibility coupled with aggressive marketing by the alcohol industry is leading to increasing alcohol consumption especially among the African youth.

Thanks for your continued support to our project!

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March is a good time to look back at the past year. 2014 was a particularly rich year for Blue Cross Chad, especially since its life skills programme gained significant momentum both in terms of numbers and spread but also in terms of improvements in project design and implementation.

In 2014 the project was introduced at two more schools, increasing the number of participating schools in Ndjamena to 6 and the total number of pupils to more than 9,500 students. To increase the relatively low proportion of girls, a girls only-school was included in the program ("Lycée Feminin"). During the same year the project facilitated more than 160 life skills lessons for 33 classes on a weekly basis, reaching a total number of 3'456 students. Importantly the lessons have become an integrated part of the regular school hours, which can be qualified as a major success. It is a further step towards our long-term goal to mainstream life skills into the national curriculum. In addition, every quarter at least one major event involving the whole student population took place, including interschool soccer tournaments. This mass events have attracted big crowds of learners and have contributed to closer interschool relationships.

This project also works with out-of-school youth, namely young motor cycle taxi drivers. The motorcycle taxi drivers are young men who earn their living with taxi rides on motorcycles. In 2014, the number of participating “taxi stands” (the drivers are organised geographically) was increased from 4 to 6. From January until December 2014 a total of 45 open-air life skills lessons were held for at least 110 drivers. Thematic lessons were created to fit the special needs of this target group (among others topics on road safety, on HIV/AIDS and on financial management of small scale business). As the taxi drivers constitute an HIV risk group, special attention is paid to the issue of responsible sexuality. Numerous testimonies indicate that an increased awareness of the target group takes place. What is more: two-thirds of the young men participated in voluntary AIDS testing.

Finally, as part of the policy component of this project, a baseline study documented the number of alcohol outlets that do not comply with the legally stipulated minimum distance to schools. Violations were found in 65% of schools. The project has also carried out test purchases with children and young people – for the first time ever in Chad! 100% of the test buyers, some as young as 10 years old, received the requested alcoholic beverages. This result was made public at a press conference and will serve the basis for measures in the field of youth protection in 2015 and beyond.

Testimonies sometimes say more than words. Find below two stories of change from learners participating in the programme – a girl and a boy:

Hello, my name is Salma. I am a learner at Lycée Ibrahim MHT Itno (high school) and the former President of the life skills club at our school. As a girl, when I introduce myself as club president, others think I cannot lead a group of girls and boys. But I was able to hold my mandate till the end. I realized that with ambition and sufficient self-esteem also a girl can reach important goals. Blue Cross has done huge things for us.

My name is Masrabaye.I am a member of the life skills-club of Concorde High School. What really stood out for me was the peer educator’s training camp in Siloam. There was complete mixing between young people from different schools, with no ethnic or religious discrimination. Muslims and Christians alike ate together in the same dish, regardless of sex. Personally I was surprised. I was surprised because in the old days, it was impossible to see a Muslim who is eating in the same dish with a Christian. Today, thanks to Blue Cross, I find myself in a better life with friends without distinction of race or religion. Since then, Christians and Muslims are all my own brothers, sisters and friends. I feel happy in this new life.

The Blue Cross team in Chad is so excited about the development of the life skills lessons in the classroom that peer educators have begun to develop an after-school component in the form of “life skills clubs." The club model implemented in the framework of this project works like this: Clubs are managed by the learners themselves - including the set-up of democratic structures – and each club has elected a board and works in the manner of an associational structure. The experience of “small-scale” democracy and leadership through club management is proving extremely positive for youth, who in addition to essential life skills are now also gaining leadership and management skills! This is a completely innovative and bottom-up initiative of the Blue Cross Chad team! 

In other news...

Promoting Good Governance for Sustainable Development

In late 2014 IFBC received co-financing from its partner network here in Switzerland, Bread for All, to increase the understanding and implementation of good governance practices. We used the funding to develop a 4-day workshop, held in Brazzaville, Congo, bringing together staff and volunteers from 6 French-speaking African Blue Cross organizations including Blue Cross Chad. Among the subject matters discussed were best practices in recruitment, best practices in financial management and corruption and effective anti-corruption mechanisms.

The team at Blue Cross Chad has now been tasked with organizing a localized training together with an external consultant to assess their own organization’s practices in all relevant fields (organizational structure, financial management, HR, procurement, admin) and where required, to make improvements based on the assessment outcome.

Many of us take these subject matters for granted and assume that they are inherent in management of development projects however for small grass-roots NGOs, it takes time to develop and nurture governance structures to ensure that our projects are run responsibly and deliver the highest possible impact. We commend our team at Blue Cross Chad for their hard work and dedication and look forward to great things in 2015!

Dear Donors,

Thank you for supporting our Life Skills project for Chadian youth. We are pleased to announce that we have reached the funding goal and the project is fully funded for 2015! Through contributions from the Swiss Government, Bread for All and private donations, we have secured the required funding to ensure project continuity and ensure expansion for 2016 and beyond.

Currently, Blue Cross Chad staff are attending a seminar in Brazzaville, Congo, with partner organizations share skills and knowledge and strengthen organizational development. The training is being attended by our own Project Officer, Madeleine Bolliger, and the president of the International Blue Cross.

We thank you again for your support! You can find updates on the project on our website or Facebook page and as always, you have been a critical element in the Blue Cross spirit of "Doing it Together"!

Regards,

Mischa Rychener

Fundraising Officer