It is 11:00 o'clock in Gaga Refugee Camp, time for community breakfast, Fatour, yet Khamisa Haroun Ahmed is not sure of having hers. Actually, she has eaten nothing, since her hadha, at one o'clock the previous day. She is not even sure if she will be able to get a meal today.
Khamisa is a member of a child headed household, of a family of five. Her sisters Khadija 13, and Mariam 10, had gone to work for other refugees in the fields. Her brother, Yakoub who is 8, has gone to the market to scavenge and beg for food. The second youngest boy, Adam 5, was playing with friends. His face bears the bruises of being constantly assaulted by older boys. Unlike other children, he has no father or mother to protect him.
We need an appointment to meet with all five children together, they are a busy lot. Busy trying to make both ends meet . Doing what should be done by adults. It is a double tragedy for the family. Being orphaned and then displaced.
Ideally, Cord would organise a community based foster care for the five children. But no family is willing to take them all in, leaving us with no option but to support them as a child headed family.
Next day we were unlucky again. The children had to go and work in the field for some food that they were paid for in advance. Finally the following day, we met all the five. Their father went missing in West Darfur, at the height of the conflict. Within weeks their mother fell ill and died, leaving them orphans.
An Uncle accompanied the children to Chad, and managed to have them registered as refugees in the camp. He then lied that he was going to look for work to take care of them. They have not seen him since.
Khadija fends for her siblings by doing menial duties for other refugees and the local Chadians. The monthly food distribution they receive lasts just 10-15 days, leaving them hungry. Worse, the family have to sell their rations to buy other items, like sugar and tea, which give them an occasional treat. The last time the family tasted meat or fish was back in Darfur, two years ago!
Since identifying this family who have slipped through the net, Cord are doing all we can to provide them with their basic needs, so they can go to school, and continue the education they have been denied for so long. For Khamisa the future looks more hopeful.
Sixty per cent of the Sudanese refugees in the camps where we work in Eastern Chad are aged eighteen and under. Cord have a brief to support vulnerable children - those who have become separated from their family in the trauma of fleeing for safety, or who have been orphaned or abandoned.
