Sponsor's update N'djamena, Chad

Child sponsorship update from the SOS Children's Village N'djamena, Chad from November 2007

Dear Sponsor,

This current year 2007 is at its end. SOS Children’s Village Ndjamena and the other SOS facilities at the same location send their warm greetings to you. Today, our Village is looking good with the blooming flowers and radiant tree leaves that have been planted until now. A “Tree Day” is now instituted once a year for each co-worker to plant a tree and be responsible of taking care of it.

In general, the year 2007 was very difficult for Chad as a country, following the political instability and the situation of insecurity generalized in all the border areas of the country, especially at its border with Sudan (Darfur). The prevailing situation considerably affected the populations, and hundreds of thousands people moved from their properties while lots of regions were decimated. As result, there was a considerable increase of orphans and vulnerable children in need of support and protection from humanitarian organisations such as SOS Children. A recent investigation of the UNICEF in Chad entitled "Study on the Standards of Protection of the Child in the Children’s care Centres" revealed that SOS Children remain the best humanitarian organisation model for children’s care.

SOS Children’s Village:
Despite the situation described above, the year 2007 has known number of achievements thanks to your continuous support. Today, the Village is a home to 120 children among which 55 girls and 65 boys living in 12 family houses, by 10 children in a house. The continued psycho-social support from mothers, aunts and other SOS co-workers has helped children to develop self confidence and skills for self reliance. All children enjoy living in the Village where they share peace and love they receive from their mothers.

Regarding partnership and integration of the Village in the community, we maintain good relationships with surroundings. SOS Mothers and the neighbouring women of the Districts organise regular meetings during which they exchange on different aspects. Last 8th October, three clubs of Ndjamena City, namely: Lion' s Tamarinier club, Lion' s Club Senior and Lion's Yasmine Club, paid visit to SOS Children‘s Village and made various gifts to the children. They have all been agreeably surprised by what is being achieved by the Village, particularly the model of children’s care and the friendly and cordial way of working of SOS Mothers.

Children's education and health

SOS Primary School:
Our school has 286 children among which 93 are from the Village while 19 are on SOS scholar-ships. During this year, the school performance of the children was excellent thanks to the home study sessions organised by Mothers and Aunts in the family houses, and by teachers at school. Also, school results are improved thanks to a good preparation granted to children starting the nursery school level. This explains why people increasingly approach the SOS facilities (schools and Medical Centre) to request for their valuable services. For the coming year 2008, it is planned the opening of computer courses section so that our children may be at the tuning fork of modern tech-nology. At present, the computer room is provided, but the necessary computers equipments such as hardware and peripherals are still needed.

SOS Nursery School:
We currently have 94 children in SOS Nursery School and 15 of them are from the Village. We have three Sections (Junior, Medium and Senior Sections) that each pupil has to do before he starts Primary school. The Nursery School intends to improve its services quality by buying new sports equip-ments and toys for pupils. Unfortunately, while the SOS Nursery School was making his plans for the future, Mrs. Honorine Nanguidibe who was a Nursery School teacher sadly left the facility on the 15th October just after the school year 2007/2008 re-entry, following a road traffic accident. SOS Family took part in the funerals and the consolation of the family so seriously tested.

SOS Medical Centre:
A total of 420 patients a year (35 per month) including 264 SOS Children and staff are received by SOS Medical Centre. Given the increasing number of patients, the Medical Centre has recently set up the permanent system of working on Saturdays and holidays to meet the multiple demands of the Village and surrounding populations. However, there is still problem of formal observation of pa-tients due to the lack of appropriate and expanded rooms. The only existing room contains only 3 beds for observation and it is constantly overwhelmed.

Projects planned for the coming year 2008

It is worth mentioning briefly the Village current difficulties obstructing its efforts to regain its rightful place and achieve even better results such as the following:

• Getting a connection to the national electricity grid:
Today, the challenges the Village faces to are essentially linked to the fact that all basic infrastructures, namely the Water tank, the Medical Centre Laboratory, the Office equipments, the families households and equipments, are all powered by a generator that can be used only on a temporary basis and with an exorbitant con-sumption of diesel.

• Solving the problem of communication (via telephone lines and the Internet):
The resolution of this problem would undoubtedly open to the outside world all SOS Children’s Village Facilities by allowing them to be constantly informed and to inform their different partners.

• Building sidewalks and put water drainage system and gutters in the Village:
The SOS Children's Village is constantly flooded during the raining season. The water stagnates in front of the families, schools, medical centre and administration buildings, causing cracks in buildings and the pervasiveness of mosquitoes that exposes children, mothers and SOS staff to malaria.

We recognise that all the Village achievements and success for this year and the previous years are all included in your assets. We would like to thank you and ask God to bless you as we brace ourselves for the New Year 2008 challenges.

Accept, Dear Sponsor, our warmest regards and Best Wishes for Merry Christmas and Happy Year 2008.

Abdelkerim Mahamat Abdelkerim
SOS Children’s Village Director