Three years on: from fleeing Sudan’s conflict to finding safety and purpose in Chad
Three years on: from fleeing Sudan’s conflict to finding safety and purpose in Chad
Shaima Abdelhadi Haroun (right) and Guisma Bachir Abdallah in her home in Gaga refugee settlement, eastern Chad.
Around 920,000 Sudanese people have fled their homes and sought refuge in Chad since the latest conflict exploded in April 2023. Guisma Bachir Abdallah and Shaima Abdelhadi Haroun were among them.
Leaving everything behind, these two redoubtable women and their young children made the arduous journey from Sudan’s West Darfur region to eastern Chad, travelling by foot or on the backs of donkeys. They were scared, exhausted and hungry. “These were difficult times,” says Guisma, 30. “We ate only once a day, and we did not know what our future would hold.”
After making it to safety, they stopped first in Goungour, near the border, where they slept in rudimentary shelters. While there, staff from UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, encountered Guisma as she and her family were being relocated to Gaga settlement, where she said she hoped to find peace and stability – and, above all, to get her children into school.
Guisma pictured in May 2023 in Goungour, southeastern Chad, just days after she and her children crossed the border to flee Sudan.
Guisma today, in her home in Gaga settlement.
Initially settled in a temporary shelter made of plastic sheeting and wood, they were later able to move into a small brick house. “This made a huge difference. Suddenly we had a home again!” says Guisma. Her wish to see her children attend school came true and they are now learning to read and write – something she is very proud of. “I never went to school, but I’m happy for my children.” The family also has access to other basic services, including a health centre run by UNHCR’s local partner, ADES (Agence de Développement Economique et Social).
But despite these improvements, Guisma has not been able to find a job and still depends on food assistance and other humanitarian support.
Guisma stands in the doorway of her mud-brick home in Gaga settlement with two of her children.
Ahfadih, 10, Samahir, 9, and Hachim, 7, get ready to go to school as their younger sister, Inamoum, 3, brings them water.
Chadian nurse Ahmat Mahamoudi checks Guisma's blood pressure at the health centre in Gaga settlement.
Sudan’s conflict has created one of the largest and fastest-growing displacement crises in the world. The refugees in Chad are among 4.5 million Sudanese who have fled to neighbouring countries, often to areas where public services and economic opportunities were limited even before the fighting.
In this challenging environment, UNHCR and its partners have sought to respond as effectively and promptly as possible to the needs of newly arrived refugees – despite massive cuts to humanitarian funding – and ensure they can continue rebuilding their lives in eastern Chad.
As well as building new boreholes and latrines, and constructing 113,000 shelters, the refugee agency has set up 129 schools and distributed 160,000 school kits across nine new refugee settlements and 11 pre-existing expanded sites, such as Gaga. It also provides psychological and social support to those who lost their homes and possessions and whose human rights have been violated, and are now having to come to terms with life in exile.
And it has helped refugees find ways to support themselves and contribute to the local community, for instance by developing irrigation systems and market gardening areas.
“Refugees bring valuable skills, experience and a strong willingness to rebuild their lives,” says Patrice Ahouansou, UNHCR Representative in Chad. “We are working with the Government of Chad, development partners and humanitarian organizations to move beyond emergency assistance and support refugees and their host communities in finding opportunities, starting businesses, and using their skills. They can really contribute to local economies and live in harmony with the communities that host them.”
Women’s groups have also flourished in the refugee settlements, with support from UNHCR and its partners. Around 1,400 people, most of them women from both refugee and host communities, have received training and equipment for activities such as growing vegetables and food production, helping them to earn an income and regain some independence and financial stability.
In Gaga settlement, which hosts 42,000 refugees, Shaima, also 30, leads a group of 20 women who engage in various livelihood activities. “Because the assistance we received was not enough, we decided to make and sell liquid soap and share the profits among ourselves within the group,” explains Shaima.
Calling itself Al-Moustakbal – Arabic for “The Future” – the collective has four workstreams: soap-making, traditional weaving (tabaqa), sewing and basketry. “I really love these projects because they empower mothers and young women to support themselves and their children and reduce their dependence on others,” says Shaima, who was a teacher back in Sudan. “We want to move beyond the idea that a woman’s place is at the home; we have the same capabilities and potential to work as men do.”
She recently invited Guisma to join Al-Moustakbal so that she, too, can participate in their activities and generate an income to support herself and her children. “I really hope Guisma will join us,” she says.
Shaima Abdelhadi Haroun at her home in Gaga refugee settlement.
Shaima pours liquid soap into a plastic bottle under the watchful eyes of the women’s group she created in the Gaga refugee settlement.
Shaima (right) visits Guisma to invite her to join the women’s group she set up.
Last November, as part of the global 16 Days of Activism campaign, UNHCR provided training and advocacy support on women’s rights through its Chadian partner APLFT (Association pour la promotion des libertés fondamentales au Tchad).
But the group offers more than work; its members provide each other with a compassionate, attentive forum to share their problems and cope with the violence – including sexual abuses – that they both witnessed and endured in Sudan. As so often with conflict and displacement, it is women and girls who are bearing the brunt.
Shaima remembers her fear when she and her children fled attacks by armed men in May 2023. “We lost family members and many precious things,” she says. “Arriving here at the camp protected us from the war and the sounds of weapons.”
Her dream is now to have a large space for baking, making various sweets, and producing bar and liquid soap – as well as a very different project. “I would like to create a community radio station. This is something I care deeply about. I hope to secure funding this year to launch the project in 2027.”
