Afrah, sudanese refugee and community relay in eastern Chad
"I like this job because I'm close to the children and I help look after them."
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On a hot April morning, women and their children enter the outpatient nutritional unit in Adré in eastern Chad, on the border with Sudan.
In the shade of a large shed, women sit with their children in their arms. The screams and cries of the babies mingle with the bursts of laughter and warm greetings between the adults. Amid the crowd, Afrah, the community relay, guides the parents and responds to their requests.
Just over a year ago, 29-year-old Afrah Ibrahim was living peacefully with her parents and 6 brothers and sisters in the nearby town of El Geneina in Sudan. With a degree in Information Technology, she worked as a secretary. She never imagined she would have to flee her country.
Until that day in June 2023, when the fighting and atrocities reached her town.
"It was a sad and very difficult day for us, because we had to leave our country without any guarantee and leave everything behind. There was murder, looting and rape. On the way to Adré, we were looted. They nearly killed my family".
recalls Afrah with bitterness in her voice.
When they arrived, the young woman and her family were relocated to the Abountagui refugee camp a few kilometers from Adré; but the situation there was difficult for them, and they decided to return to Adré a few months later to look for work.
Afrah applied for a job and became a community relay at the outpatient nutritional set up by Action against Hunger unit in Adré’s refugee settlement with UNICEF support.
Afrah works daily, both at the nutritional unit and in Adré’s refugee settlement.
In the refugee camp, I'm in charge of screening children for malnutrition and raising parents' awareness. When I find out that a child is suffering from malnutrition, I ask the parents to take him or her to the nutrition unit.
When I work in the nutrition unit, I give malnourished children water with sugar to keep them hydrated, I refer parents and I help with other tasks.
Afrah is currently the only member of her family that has found a job.
Despite her daily difficulties and her nostalgia for her life in Sudan, she loves what she does and remains hopeful of returning home one day.
"I like this job because I'm close to the children and I help look after them. I hope that the war will stop, that there will be no more human rights violations, so that we can return home in peace".
Since the onset of the humanitarian crisis in eastern Chad caused by the conflict in Sudan, UNICEF and partners, with the financial support from USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and the European Commission's Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations department (DG ECHO), have been fighting malnutrition in children, by setting up therapeutic nutrition units in the provinces of Ouaddaï and Sila, raising awareness of the need to reduce malnutrition, improving access to quality treatment through nutrition therapeutic units in the provinces of Ouaddaï and Sila, raising parents' awareness of good nutritional practices, supplying medicines and distributing ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF).
