Stop Genocide Now
“It’s just a hiccup,” Suzanne says to us. We are sitting in a small room with three mattresses off to the side of UNHCR’s fitness center, our home for the evening. I truly believe her. All is quiet here in Abeche and it will remain as such. If anything, the rebels will continue on past […]
Around 5,000 newly resettled refugees have begun to build 2-3 kilometers from the Chad-Darfur border. They are not concentrated but rather spread out in small pockets, sometimes only a few families huddle together near a wadi – which are soon to be filled with water as the rainy season has already begun. Another 5,000 or […]
The plane drops about 50 feet in a few seconds, and my stomach goes with it, then steadies. I peer out the window only to see a fine layer of sand, rather than a cloud line as you would in the States. It’s a bright sunny day, but the air is fogged with fine granules, […]
This time I have not adapted well to the difference in time zones. It has been three days since I arrived, and I’m still very awake during the nights and in to the morning. My mac tells me that it’s 8:43pm back home in California, but here it’s 4:43am. It feels a lot more like […]
Energized. Positive. I am ready for a new day after a full night’s rest. I checked my watch at 9am, but rolled back over, thinking to myself, today will be the last day to sleep in for a while, enjoy. Once up, I slip into my flip flops, and slowly walk towards Le Meridien for […]
We haven’t heard from our fixer, and it’s about 3pm. UNHCR hasn’t called back and we have a new cell phone number so we are confined to our room, until someone calls with information about our permits. I’m nervous that we might get stuck in N’Djamena. Swedish European Union forces and small Chadian children share […]
Only weeks ago, we were enveloped into the eyes of Fatna (view video here) as she described bombs falling from the sky and bullets hounding her family of seven as she struggled to keep them together in their journey to safety. No food, no water, nothing but the clothes on their back. They now live […]
Hello from N’Djamena: We made it safely out of Eastern Chad, right before violence and instability broke out; we could have been stuck there, since the road we last traveled was closed down the very next day. Our friends in the camps are not as lucky, with aid staff being relocated and services being stopped; […]
Gabriel, Katie-Jay, Joshua and Jeremiah have just finished their recent trip to the refuge camps! They are now in N’djamena, along with many evacuated UNHCR staff. The situation on the ground now is grim, with camp staff evacuated out from Guereda, Mile and Kounoungou. The camps they were at just a few days ago were […]
Day 12 We make a quick stop to wrap up unfinished business in Farchana before heading out to Gaga, then on to Abeche. Our last day in the camps. The wind blows harshly in the morning sun as women line up to receive monthly rations and, a for a few, they receive white sheeting for […]