Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Cholera outbreak in eastern Chad almost over

September 14: An outbreak of cholera centered on Abéché, Chad is now nearly over. Please pray for the final cases to recover well, especially the children who were touched and whose ability to fight off the disease is not developed.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Despite crisis in Somalia, Chad is still the worst place to treat a sick child

(AFP, Dakar): Children in countries facing a dearth of health workers, mainly in Africa, are five times more likely to die from illnesses than those in developed countries, a Save the Children study showed Tuesday.
The new Health Workers Reach Index by the UK-based NGO shows that Chad is the worst place to treat a sick child, while Switzerland is the best, with 13 of the worst 20 countries for a child to fall ill in, in Africa.
Famine and war-wracked Somalia is the runner up for worst place. Countries like Laos, Nepal, Afghanistan and Bangladesh feature at the bottom.
Finland, Ireland, Norway, Belarus and Denmark are also at the top of the list.
"At the moment, a child's survival depends on where he or she is born in the world. No mother should have to watch helplessly as her child grows sick and dies, simply because there is no one trained to help," said Aboubacry Tall, the NGO's West and Central Africa regional director.
Children in these countries -- which have less than the World Health Organisation minimum of just over two health workers for every thousand people - are five times more likely to die than those countries at the top of the index.
The charity hopes to highlight a global shortage of over 3.5 million doctors, nurses, midwives and community health workers two weeks before a crucial UN meeting in New York.
Millions of children risk dying in countries like Ethiopia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone because of a lack of healthworkers. Please pray with us for God to call competent health workers, not only to Chad, but to all the nations at the bottom of this list.

To read the full article from AFP, click here.

Djermaya refinery delivers energy crunch

September 7, 2011: With the inauguration of the Chinese oil refinery in Djermaya, Chad, the market is doing its best to adjust to the new addition. The timing could not have been worse, as Chad finds itself in that period between the close of the rainy season and harvest, where the roads are at their worst.
Between a 40%+ tax on imported goods and the subsidized cost of production in Djermaya, imported gasoline and diesel just cannot compete with the price offered at the Chinese refineries.
Every gas station and fuel distributor in Chad (and perhaps elsewhere) wants to buy the cheaper fuel from the new refinery. As a result, suppliers are having difficulty keeping up with the demand, and everyone from motorcyclists to transportation companies to private companies who use generators, from N'Djaména to Goz Beïda, is struggling to provide their need for energy.
Please pray that immediate energy solutions may be found soon, and that long-term improvements will also be felt as time goes by.

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

President's project to build one hundred housing complexes in the N'Djaména area has taken off

On the road which leads into N'Djaména from Moundou, the gathering of
materials and construction for President Idriss Déby Itno's housing
complex project (logements sociaux) has really taken off. Trucks
carrying cement, plywood and other building materials are arriving by
the hundreds, and the materials are beaing unloaded and transported to
several sites. In the distance overlooking the road where these
materials are arriving, one can see some of the housing complexes going
up. The buildings are simple but solid; a few of them already have the
roof and the second floor up, despite the rainy season which could have
potentially hindered progress on them. Each housing complex appears to
be able to hold at least twenty families comfortably, and seems to be
employing hundreds, perhaps thousands, of construction workers.
Please pray that the infrastructure required for these buildings would
be well-built, and that the communities built around these homes would
be peaceful places which God can bless.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Inauguration Day

Pray for Chad and for President Idriss Déby Itno as he is officially
inaugurated for another term today.

Sudan, Chad to sign US$2b pact to build railway (PANA)

A US$2 billion tri-partite agreement will be signed soon to implement
projects linking Sudan and Chad, via a railroad that would expand up to
Douala in Cameroon, a Sudanese ruling party member announced on Friday.

Hassan Bargo, the ruling party official responsible for the township
between Sudan and Chad, said the two countries would soon send a
delegation to China, where they would sign the contract with the Chinese
Import and Export Bank, which will provide the funds.
He said the money would be used to construct a railway line that extends
from Nyala in Sudan's western Darfur region up to Ndjamena (Chad), to
Abahe-Adre up to Nyala in the east and will go from Ndjamena up to
Douala in Cameroon.
There is a rail road linking Nyala to Port Sudan on the Red Sea in
Eastern Sudan region. With this link, the landlocked Chad will be
directly linked to the Red Sea with a train that runs a 120 kms an hour,
transporting commodities.
The Sudanese official said the projects would start in October this year.

(full article found at
http://www.africanmanager.com/site_eng/detail_article.php?art_id=17139)