Let me introduce you to Hadjia Yousouf. She is a 27 year old woman living in the Gouroukoun camp for international displaced people outside Goz Beida in eastern Chad. She is married to Abdullah and has 7 children. The eldest, Rakhya, is 14 and the youngest, Salime is just six weeks old. The family used to live in the peacefull village of Koumou, with a population of 1,000, situated 5 km from the border with Sudan. She had a good life - they owned 150 cattle and a couple of donkey's.
They also grew vegetables, such as potatoes, yam and tomatoes.
Today Hadjia lives in the camp. She had to leave her home as the village was attacked by the Janjaweed, who are armed rebels involved in the Darfur conflict. They raidd koumou before taking some livestock. 15 months ago they came again and this time in force. The villagers had no mean of protection. 50 men and 3 woman were killed and many, including hadjia were beaten. She bears the scars to prove it. She lost brothers and uncles, but she is unsure how many because they were seperated.
She hopes that some got away to refugee camps on the Sudanese side of the border.
It took her family 4 days to get to Gouroukoun. They travelled with very few possessions, managing to take a donkey that has since died. They had to built themselves a hut out of brushwood gathered from the surrounding area, measuring 10 feet by 8 feet. 11 of her family lives in it. They had to beg and borrow food when they arrived.
You can read about how Hadjia spends her day in the Gouroukoumcamp here.
Hadjia is one of the people that Concern takes care of. Concern is a non-governmental , international, humanitarian organisationdedicated to the reduction of suffering and working towards the ultimate elimination of extreme poverty in the world's poorest countries. Concern started in 1968 after the disasterous famine in Biafra. Ireland had many close links with Biafra via the thousants of Irish missionaires who worked there and who found themselves caught up in the conflict of the
Nigerian civil war. Among the many people in Ireland who expressed their anxiety about the famine sticken victims was a group of individuals collectively known as 'Africa Concern'. On 28 June 1968, Biafran based Catholic Bishop JB Wheelan and Angelican Bishop GEC Cockin launched a Send One Ship Appeal (SOS) before a large gathering in Dublin. Now a days Concern works in 28 countries.
Many thanks to Concern and especially Naoise Kavanagh for the information and the pictures. If you want to read more about Concern click You can read Nathaniel Parker's diary from the Chad trip on the Concern site. It is worth reading and very moving.
Here is a clip of the film Nathaniel and documentary maker Paul Welsh made when he was in Chad. Hopefully we are able to see the whole film soon. Many thanks to Darfur news for their help.
