Life Skills and Peer Education for Chadian Youth

Within the last months, Chad was marked by lots of strikes and protest marches related to the presidential election in Chad. This made it difficult to fully carry out the Life Skills Sessions. Since schools were closed from time to time, school wasn't regularly taking place. Nevertheless, between january and march, 1479 youths took part in 110 Life Skills sessions. The goal of the Life skills sessios is that youths adopt safer behaviour through acquiring new skills. Another important focus of the porogramme is the prevention of gender based violence. Between january and march, 2177 youths took part in sessions about gender based violence either in school classes or at the GBV-clubs. 

Last but not least, different community activities took place. At the moment there are four different groups, which organize different activities for the communities. So far, two of these groups have organized activities where 84 people participated. Members of the community groups support each other to achieve social change. By building relationships, using the ressource of already existing groups and supporting each other in learning, community groups bring social transformation.

Another highlight was a big survey of beneficicaries. In total 181 beneficiaries from high schools and 45 others from motorcyle cab sites were interviewed. Once the interviews are evaluated, they will be used as an orientation for the next programme phase. Surveys are always an important tool for IBC to make sure the programmes really tackle the needs of the community. It is also a great way to get feedback from the participants and see how the programme can improve.

Looking back, we're really happy to see that even though Chad was facing lots of difficulties over the last months, Blue Cross Chad was able to carry out several activities and keep reaching the youth. We're excited for the next season and hope that the situation in Chad allows us to regularly run the programme.