Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
N’Djamena (Fides Service)- On 18 May in Habile 3 IDP camp a service of primary school began for the children of internally displaced persons in the Dar Sila region in eastern Chad started by the Jesuit Refugee Service according to a JRS report sent to Fides.
For most of the 511 children this will be the first time they go to school. JRS supplied the materials for the temporary schools built with the help of the parents and distributed school material to the children. JRS trained three teachers in the camp community, also IDPs, and helped parents and children form an association to represent all the different villages present at Habile 3. The local school inspector was present for the inauguration. Habile 3 camp was set up in April after the nearby villages of Tiero and Manera had been attacked rebels of the opposition. For many of the people of Tiero and Marena, this was not the first time they had been forced to leave their homes.
In Dar Sila, school attendance rate is always lower than the rest of Chad, below 10 per cent. Violence has made things worse and destroyed a school system which was already fragile. “Very few children attend school and the scarcity of qualified teachers makes it difficult to improve the teacher/pupil ratio and the attendance rate. When violence started last year the few teachers here moved away from the region and are now working with various NGOs for a good wage," said Gonzalo Sánchez-Terán, director of the JRS programme for Dar Sila. In the weeks to come JRS will start more school lessons at Gassare and Aradib camps, in the same Dar Sila region.
The three Habile camps (1, 2, 3) offer shelter to 25000 people over a vast area. The camp conditions are difficult, scarcity of food and water, and the rain season prevents the people from working the land . (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 6/6/2007 righe 28 parole 360)
