The Education and Gender-Based Violence Protection Needs of Adolescent Girls from Darfur in Chad
Author: Womens UN Report Network
Date: January 15, 2006
Children
Sudanese Refugees in Chad: “Don’t Forget Us.” Women’s
Commission Report looks at the education and protection challenges facing
adolescent refugee girls in Chad.
http://www.womenscommission.org/pdf/Td_ed2.pdf
“Don’t Forget Us”:
The Education and Gender-Based Violence Protection Needs
of Adolescent Girls from Darfur in Chad
Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and
Children
Executive
Summary
More
than 220,000 Sudanese from Darfur have fled the ongoing violence in their region
and crossed the border into the desert of eastern Chad. Most of the refugees are
now in camps; however, at the time of the Women’s Commission visit, several
thousand remained on the border or on the periphery of some camps, waiting to be
registered. The conditions are bleak: water is in very short supply and except
for the southernmost camps, it is nearly impossible to farm or otherwise earn a
living. With no resolution to the Darfur crisis in sight and violence
continuing, it is estimated that between 50,000 and 100,000 refugees might flee
to eastern Chad in 2005.[1]
Adolescent
Girls
In
Darfur, the concept of “adolescence” as a developmental stage does not exist.
Females are considered girls until they menstruate, at which point they become
women; however, this does not mean that females between the ages of 11 and 18
experience life in the camps in the same way as those 18 years old and above.
While many of the girls in the 11-18 year age group share most of the same
duties as their mothers, one major difference is that many of the girls are in
school for the very first time. This is an opportunity they would not have had
in Darfur and which their mothers never had.[2]
Education
At
the time of the Women’s Commission’s visit, all 11 refugee camps had education
programs. In most camps this included primary grades 1-6, some adult literacy
classes, and some preschool. In
more than half of the camps, refugees who had education experience as teachers
and administrators in Darfur started schools in the camps prior to the arrival
of the humanitarian community.
While education is widespread, a significant number of
the refugees face numerous challenges. UNICEF took the lead on education, but
their presence at the time of the Women’s Commission visit was sorely lacking in
the camps, as was acknowledged by UNICEF’s sub-office in Abeche. At that time,
UNICEF had not provided adequate shelters for schools, school supplies or
guidance to teachers or camp management. A number of contingencies, including a
lack of funding and the difficulty of the conditions in Chad, many of them out
of UNICEF’s control, seem to be to blame.
Another major problem are the “incentives” given to
teachers by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which
were seen as inadequate by the large majority of teachers. School headmasters
reported losing teachers who left their jobs to make more money in other ways,
such as selling firewood. The few women teachers in the camps teach only the
lowest grades. Young people who have completed grade eight have no opportunities
for education or skills training.
Gender-Based
Violence
Thousands of girls and women have been raped and/or
beaten in Darfur and in Chad. In most camps the Women’s Commission visited,
there were reports of women who had been raped by the members of the janjaweed
militia. Some of these rapes have resulted in pregnancy. Pregnancy due to rape
is an extremely complicated issue; it is culturally unacceptable to be pregnant
outside of marriage, and to be carrying a child fathered by the “enemy”
compounds the problem dramatically. Health staff reported that women pregnant as
a result of rape did not report the rape due to the social stigma attached.
There were some reports of women abandoning babies of the janjaweed; however, in
other camps programs were being developed with refugee communities to integrate
and support mothers and their children born as a result of rape.
In
Chad refugee girls and women are sometimes beaten and raped when they are
collecting firewood. They must walk for hours to get firewood; in some areas,
attacks on girls collecting firewood by host communities are frequent. In
addition to competition for scarce firewood, local communities resent the basic
services the refugees receive, which they lack. Women and girls in four camps
reported being beaten when collecting wood, and rapes were reported in two
camps; the perpetrators were reported to be local people. At the time of the
Women’s Commission mission, very little psychosocial assistance was available to
girls and women victims of gender-based violence.
Other
Issues
The
Women’s Commission found a number of other issues during the course of the
mission.
One
was the problem of unregistered refugees, who have in some cases been waiting
for months for assistance; they cannot receive assistance until they are given
official documentation by UNHCR. Overcrowding in the camps remains a significant
problem, as does the lack of water. The issues are related: the search for
much-needed new camps is contingent on finding viable water sources, a difficult
feat in the vast desert. The water rations had been cut to below internationally
accepted standards in at least one camp by the camp management.
Tensions are increasing between the refugees and the host
communities in many areas. The villages surrounding the camps are among the
poorest in the world; a poor harvest last year has made their situation even
worse.
Executive
Summary Recommendations:
Adolescent
Girls
° NGOs and
United Nations agencies need to keep pushing for girls and young women to take
part in decision-making in camp management, youth committees, women’s groups,
and in schools.
° Each
organization working on the ground should have a gender specialist and should
implement projects with a gender perspective. Funding must be earmarked for this
purpose.
Gender-Based
Violence
° All health
care providers should immediately establish and implement care for the survivors
of violence following established protocols.
° Simple and
safe alternative methods of cooking should be expanded, and safe systems for
gathering firewood must be created.
Education
°
Semi-permanent classrooms need to be built to protect students from heat,
wind, rain and sandstorms.
° Furniture
and supplies, including textbooks, curriculum guides from Sudan, pens, paper,
pencils, blackboards and sports equipment, should be provided or restocked
immediately.
°
Distribution times for food and other items should be set so that they do
not conflict with school hours; this then would not be used as an excuse for
keeping girls out of school.
° A program
of providing incentives to parents so they send girls to school should be
developed and implemented.
° UNHCR and
UNICEF should hire an education staff member from the start of an
operation.
° Literacy
classes should be available for all refugees regardless of age or
gender.
Additional
Recommendations
° Local
communities must be given resources so that tensions between local people and
refugees lessen.
° Because
finding water sources is a priority, the drilling of multiple bore holes should
take place simultaneously.
A
full copy of the report can be read at: http://www.womenscommission.org/pdf/Td_ed2.pdf
[1] Women’s Commission
interview with Eduardo Garcia Rolland, Oxfam. January 16,
2005.
[2] From conversations with
refugee women and girls in all 10 camps
visited.
================================================================
To
leave the list, send your request by email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.
Categories: Releases