Income generating activities and food security in Southern Chad.

A new professional group has started its activities with ACTED support in Goré, with the aim of enhancing the provision of agricultural tools in the region. Although the activities have just started, some important objectives have already been reached.

Since March, ACTED has intervened in the Nya Pendé District, Southern Chad, to strengthen food security and foster income generating activities for local populations and Central African refugees, in the framework of a food security project funded by the European Commission Humanitarian Aid Department.

To fulfil these objectives, a professional group of blacksmiths was created to improve the provision of agricultural tools in the area. It is also responsible for selling seeds and veterinary products. For this purpose, ACTED set up a shop. The improvement of access to agricultural tools, quality seeds and veterinary products has a strong impact on food security in the area, as it enables producers to increase their yield.

The settling of almost 20,000 Central African refugees since 2003 has led to rising tensions with local populations in regard to access to land. The blacksmiths of Goré comprise both inhabitants of Goré and Central African refugees. Working hand-in-hand, they now constitute « a single family ».

“The professional group has tied us together”

“A single family”; those are the words of Gaston Nojitoroum from Goré, who explains that before the setting up of the group he used to work on his own, as did all others blacksmiths in town. “The professional group has tied us together”, he explains, stating the renewed character of their work given ACTED’s intervention. “Working together has enabled us to learn new techniques from each other”. ACTED selected those blacksmiths who were already active but lacked resources, as they worked on their own. Sharing their skills and in providing them with equipment, such as a welding machine, or in training on management techniques, ACTED has enabled these blacksmiths to become autonomous. Abouja Borouma is enthused; the group “will soon be able to supply all the villages of the area”.

“We forget about nationalities”

ACTED particularly enhances the quality of the techniques and seeds in use by households. This will help reduce the impact of under-productive cultivated lands hence favouring food security at household level.

Abouja is a refugee from the camp of Gondjé. Although he is originally Chadian, he has lived in CAR throughout his life, where he was already part of very active blacksmith groups, in Bangui and later in Paoua. He was compelled to return to Chad because of the war. However, despite being Chadian, he explains that it is only through ACTED’s group that he could establish in the local community. While it was possibly easier for him, he thinks such initiatives can facilitate the settling of Central Africans among local communities in Goré. Gaston adds that a « perfect harmony » exists within the group and thanks to this work « we forget about nationalities ». Reducing the distance between refugees and local populations remains one of the main objectives of ACTED in the region.

« My children will go to school »

Nowadays, Abouja pictures the future differently; he doesn’t want to return to CAR and has already left the camp to settle in Goré. As his family comprises 9 persons, not all his children go to school. He however remains confident that thanks to the group « it will turn out to be possible ». Many things remain to be achieved for the blacksmiths of Goré to be self-sufficient and to fully integrate the local economy. Nonetheless, the support that ACTED provides has already enabled the refugees and the local populations to work together, to know each other and to foster confidence in the future.