Life Skills and Peer Education for Chadian Youth

Within the Project Life Skills and Peer Education in Chad, this time we will tell you about thetraining of 32 peer educators for mototaxis drivers and also the training of 20 girls identified in the various partner schools.

The training of peer educator mototaxis drivers edition of 2017 it was held in Siloé / KOUNDOUL from 16 to 20 July 2017. This training helped to build the capacity of the 32 peer educator motorcycle taxi drivers at 12 sites of beneficiary motorcycle taxi drivers through training on CBT knowledge, peer education, programming and monitoring activities, lifeskill facilitation techniques, alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, HIV/AIDS, and drama. This training enabled the trained peers to improve the execution rate of animation programming and ensure better monitoring of activities among motorcycle taxi drivers in order to achieve the desired results. The evaluation of the knowledge acquired at the end of the training shows that, overall, the objectives have been achieved. The motorcycle taxi drivers proved it the day before the last day during the sensitization outing in Koundoul through the exchanges they had with the audience using the forum theatre. They generally had a sustained argument about the harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco, the consequences of sexual vagrancy and especially the use of Tramadol.

Many good commitments were made by the participants with regard to reducing their consumption and they showed a strong will to share the knowledge acquired with other colleagues.

Another very interesting and important training was the training of 20 girls identified in the various partner schools This year, CBT initiated a training course for girls who cannot leave the city of N' Djamena for a few days because of their parents' reluctance.

To enable them to acquire the same knowledge as those who take part in the youth training camp in Siloé, 20 peer educating girls from three high schools (the Amriguebé bilingual female high school, the Cheikh Hamdan high school, the Freedom High School) and the Baobab association took part in this training and acquired knowledge on different modules.

Innovation was the theme on gender-based violence. This is a first, the participants were active during the training. They took advantage of the space to talk freely about certain taboo subjects in friendly relations between boys and girls. They raised some facts about verbal harassment of their male colleagues that they and even at the family level. For many of them, talking about it not only relieves them, but also makes them fear to talk about it with their parents.

In order to provide an opportunity for the population of this Muslim-majority part of the city to become acquainted with CBT and its actions, the presentation of the certificates on the last day was combined with a recreational evening of exchanges with spectators. Every girl should invite at least ten people. This was the case and many questions were asked and the answers were given by the Deputy Secretary General of CBT present at the event. The issue will have to be addressed by the CBT authorities.

These are only two of many projects that Blue Cross with your support is implementing in Chad which have a very good impact on the youth people and they are very grateful for this. So, thank you again for your very evaluable support!

Thank you for supporting our  Life Skills and Peer Education Project in Chad! During this year there have been huge number of activities and this report tells you some of the highlights. We do not this time only tell you about the latest developments but try to give you a picture of the annual programme.

Life Skills is a holistic prevention program for disadvantaged youth in the field of alcohol, drugs and HIV/AIDS. It promotes behavior change and the development of essential life skills. Peer Education is based on role modeling and the ability of young people to become leaders and agents of change through empowerment and support.

Blue Cross Chad runs the life skills lessons in schools and after school clubs (sports, theater, etc.),

They also target a specific group namely young motorcycle taxi drivers.

Through life skills lessons, Peer Educators and Club Leaders trainings, the level of knowledge and the sensibilisation on the effects and hazards of alcohol, tobacco, tramol, other addictions and HIV / AIDS in secondary schools and at motorcycle driver sites has been increased.

Half Year 2017

• 153 life Skills lessons among 15 schools and 12 motor taxi sites
•  14.881 youth reached
•  42 youth leaders trained
•  Project monitoring visit and capacity building conducted by IBC

The project staff are hostingcommunity awareness meetings with parents and teachers and with community leaders on community action (general public) about alcohol and drugs.

The activities of the communities have focused on awareness of children in primary schools and lobbying community leaders and politicians to take the Alcohol Law draft to the parliament.Participants were all excited of the opportunities that were given to them to speak out their experiences of problems with alcohol and smoking in the family.

The IBC’s Life Skills and Peer Education Programme in Chad is an example of one of our successes in this field, which is much appreciated by beneficiaries.

On the International Day of Women on 08 March 2017, BC Chad arranged a special promotion for the gender issues. It was organised a girls and boys football tournament.

In addition there was a special promotion of the World Breast Cancer Day on February 4, 2017. Girls from life skills programmes showed their engagement for a society without addiction and their commitment in the fight against breast cancer – a disease which is largely a consequence of tobacco and alcohol consumption.

On the 31st May 2017 the BC Chad has created an event to celebrate the WHO ‘World no tobacco day’. Two popular radio channels very listened to by young people nationally: National Chadian (NTR) and the Radio Oxygen; interviewed Blue Cross staff and youth at their broadcasts. There was a broadcast sponsored by the Ministry of Public Health with the financial support of WHO during four consecutive mornings. This lead to a joint declaration prepared by the WHO representative in Chad and the Minister of Public Health. They declared the health theme of the year 'Tobacco one threat to the development’'.

An important objective of the project is also the capacity development. In the first six months of 2017, a follow up training on data collection methods and statistical softwarehas been offered to the local staff by the local project coordinator with thesupport of IBC programme officer. In order to improve the quality of the programme further the IBC programme officer held several successful workshops on social accountability and development of local partnerships and fundraisingduring the project visit in January.

Furthermore, the local organization got to know and trained tools that focus on how to develop different kind of local partnerships (e.g. institutional partnership, financial partnership) and how to maintain and manage partnership to boost the sustainability of its project-work.

There are so many more success stories to tell and we look forward to reporting again! The Chadian youth are most thankful for your support. There is much to do in Chad, let’s do it together!