SIGN OF LIFE: In Chad

Chad is a beautiful country with a great diversity of landscapes and ethnic groups.  The Holy Family community has been inserted in Gounou-Gaya for some time.  Gounou-Gaya is a small town 400 kilometres from Mokolo in the Cameroon.  There are four sisters in the community; they are engaged in pastoral work in the parish, working with families, young people, justice and peace groups, and catechesis.  They also work alongside the priests in the Community College of the Daughters of Gounou-Gaya.  Our community is represented in the college by two sisters, one of whom is the director. 
The situation of women in Chad is very precarious given the prevalence of certain socio-cultural realities: polygamy for example, where women are regarded as property to be inherited.  Women have no economic power and this makes them very vulnerable.  Girls are not educated and those who have had the opportunity to attend school seldom finish because they are obliged to marry or they become pregnant or it is simply not the custom for girls to continue their education.  This is certainly the situation in our region of Mayo Kebbi. 

 

The girls’ college was founded to help young girls to overcome this situation.  The objectives of the college are to enable all girls to have a good education, to help them become aware of their role in society and to form future mothers who would be capable of assuming responsibility for the upbringing and education of their children. 
Since the school was opened in 2001, more than 300 girls have been educated there and a group passed the baccalauréat in 2008
The presence of sisters in the school is reassuring for the young girls.  The sisters help create a feminine atmosphere in the school.  The young girls are encouraged to work hard and commit themselves to their studies knowing that they have the same capabilities and qualities as men
I have observed that the girls have changed a great deal in the past year.  To begin with they were reluctant to listen to and obey their feminine teachers and even the female director of the establishment.  They are more used to obeying men rather than women. 
Past pupils of the school are very grateful for the education they have received.  They are well able to do their intellectual work without cheating. 
There is an excellent atmosphere at the college because there is good collaboration among the teaching staff, friendship among the pupils and fruitful rapport between the teachers and the students.  This means that there is real harmony among all in spite of the fact that students and staff are from different religious denominations. 
The school runs well and difficulties that are often encountered in a school where there are women only are surmounted with the help of God

 

                                                                           Sr Jolanta Okupniarek sfb