On World Refugee Day CARE gives a voice to the women of the Chad camps

20 June 2008

For women in the refugee camps of eastern Chad, the simple act of collecting firewood is an exercise in endurance and danger. As resources diminish, the girls are forced to leave the camps to gather the wood necessary to sustain their families. Many of these girls end up raped, beaten, and even killed.

June 20, 2008 is World Refugee Day. This year CARE is telling the world the story of the refugee women of eastern Chad and how you can help us to support these women to improve their lives, and the lives of their families and their communities.

Since 2003 over 230,000 Sudanese have come to eastern Chad, forced to flee the conflict in the Darfur region. Over 80 per cent now live in poverty. Sixty-six per cent are under 17 years of age, the majority, girls.

Collecting firewood to cook the meals is a traditional role of these women. As the years have passed, the women and girls must now go farther and farther afield to find wood – over ten kilometres, sometimes even as far as 25 kilometres from their camps. Far away from their temporary makeshift homes, gender-based violence is an all-too-common reality.

To combat the risk these women face CARE is providing cooking alternatives that significantly reduce the amount of firewood refugee families require and the number of risky wood-gathering trips women must make. CARE is training women to build efficient traditional banco stoves and is distributing and training women to use solar cookers. In the words of one woman in the village of Ambilien: "Now, because of the banco stove, I just to need to go twice a month to collect fire wood instead of four to six times. Before I used six pieces of wood a day and now I just need three pieces."

CARE is also helping refugee women achieve greater self reliance and financial independence by providing vocational and skills training. Women are learning such skills and trades as baking, carpentry, soap-making and metal working. The wages they earn from employing their new skills help support their families and decrease their financial dependence on the men of the community.

"Being a refugee does not mean being helpless and dependent on others. These women have the power to bring change and hope for themselves, their families and their communities," said Geoffrey Dennis, Chief Executive of CARE International UK.