Chad: Mastoura

Community Services - Farchana Camp

Mastoura lives in eastern Chad, close to the border with Sudan.

Mastoura's village community is poor. They struggle to make ends meet at the best of times. This year things are particularly bad; the rainy season was short, and water for drinking and irrigation is scarce. Add to this the arrival of thousands of refugees, all needing water and food, and the situation becomes even more critical.

AbbahYou could forgive Mastoura for resenting the refugees but she doesn’t.

She is working for Cord in Farchana refugee camp as a Community Services Worker, helping to give support and care to the most needy - unaccompanied children, the elderly, pregnant women etc.

Mastoura is an asset to the Cord team, not least because she speaks three languages; Massalit, Arabic and French.

Mastoura is helping one abandoned baby boy called Abbah, in a very special way. The child’s mother was raped by the Janjaweed as she fled to Chad. When Abbah was born his mother could not bear to look after him because of the traumatic memories he represented so she abandoned him

A refugee woman named Fatimah took Abbah into her family to care for him as her own, but she cannot breast feed because she has no milk. However Mastoura, who gave birth to her eighth child a few months ago, is producing milk and so, with Fatimah‘s loving care and Mastoura as his wet-nurse, Abbah is developing well, oblivious to the terrible circumstances surrounding his birth.

Abbah is just one of many babies born in the camp as the result of rape. Cord’s mission is to care for these babies and their traumatised mothers. It’s not an easy task. In this culture rape is a taboo subject which only adds feelings of guilt and shame to the trauma experienced by refugees.

Mastoura is just one of many caring women working for Cord who are being trained to listen and take sensitive action to support rape victims.