Chad: Surviving the pangs of hunger
As the country faces the worst lean season of the decade and an unprecedented food and nutrition crisis, WFP food assistance is a lifeline for thousands of families and children.
By Amadou Baraze
“We’re all suffering in this village. We’re all vulnerable.” It’s with these two sentences of despair that 60-year-old Zeinaba Issaka Gourbane, the Chief of Darsalam village in the province Bahr El-Gazal in Chad describes the food and nutritional distress that her community is encountering.
Located in the Sahelian strip of Chad, the province of Bahr El-Gazal faces recurrent food and nutrition crises, linked to poor rainfall patterns, crop pests, and poor food and nutrition practices.
These shocks significantly affect the livelihoods of the most vulnerable groups, limiting their access to food during traditionally critical periods. Insecurity in the neighbouring Lake Chad Province, and the rising prices of commodities and fuel in the market exacerbate the already dire situation.
“We will be able to grab today’s meal, as you have started food distributions,” she adds, while her community members gathered at a public square to receive food rations from the World Food Programme (WFP).
The people of Darsalam are among the nearly 1.1 million to receive WFP seasonal food assistance for the most food insecure households, for the next four months, June to September 2022.
Yet the food crisis continues to rage. Families are struggling to feed themselves. The level of malnutrition among children is increasing dramatically by day.
To survive the pangs of hunger at this critical time of the year, families often adopt coping mechanisms which are harmful to their wellbeing. Families barely eat a meal once a day.
“The food prices went up. That is making us suffer. Because of that we take credits. Then we collect firewood and make straw mats to try and pay back the credit,” adds Gourbane.
According to the results of the Cadre Harmonisé of March 2022 — a community-based food security assessment tool used by countries in the Sahel and West Africa — 2.1 million people currently suffer from severe food and nutrition insecurity in Chad.
A few kilometres away, in the village of Tchiworou, the screening of malnourished children is in progress at the health centre, which cover an area comprising 39 villages. Many mothers are sitting under the Neem tree shade, waiting for a call from the community volunteer to get their children screened.
Among them is Fatima. She arrived very early in the morning because her visibly weakened child, Abdoulaye. seems to be “very weak” from an unknown ailment according to her. “He cries all the time,” she replies to the nurse who asks why she brought the child.
“The main cause of malnutrition in most of the children we receive here is the lack of a healthy diet,” explains Justin Dankreo, the nurse at Tchiworou. “Someone like me who lives in this community knows well that families are in short of food, and the danger is that parents may also consume the inputs that we provide for the treatment of children.”
The 2022 edition of The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, reports that global hunger numbers rose to as many as 828 million in 2021 and an estimated 45 million children under the age of five were suffering from wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition, which increases children’s risk of death by up to 12 times. In Chad, it is estimated that around 1.67 million children under the age of five will suffer from acute malnutrition, including around 335,000 severe cases in the areas analysed.
To continue supporting vulnerable families and children like Abdoulaye to survive hunger, WFP urgently needs the support of its partners and donors.