CNA Staff, May 14, 2020 / 08:00 pm (CNA).- As schools in Chad remain closed due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions, teachers from the Jesuit Refugee Service are conveying safety measures to prevent the spread of the virus in local communities.
¨We came together to raise awareness among the community. Our students are part of it, so it is important for us to spread the message,¨ Ibrahim Isaakh, a science teacher in Djabal, southeastern Chad told JRS May 11.
For her part, Fatimé Ali Rifa, a teacher in the Touloum refugee camp, Iriba, located in the east of the country, has been recommending frequent handwashing and avoidance of crowds as precautionary measures to the prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
More than 450,000 refugees live in Chad, who have fled from conflicts in Sudan, the Central African Republic, and Nigeria, among other countries. Refugees live in camps afflicted by the same poverty and food insecurity faced by most residents of Chad. In addition to refugees, there are more than 150,000 internally displaced people in Chad.
Eighty percent of people in Chad live below the poverty line, and most experience chronic food insecurity.
Schools in the landlocked country, Africa’s fifth largest nation, have been closed since March 19, a move that has brought new challenges to the more than 102,000 refugee students across the country.
“Their academic engagement is at risk of great delay as many refugees lack a TV or radio to be able to follow the telematic classes offered by the government,” the JRS explained in a May 11 release.
For Abdelhamid Ibrahim Radjab, a teacher at Amnabak refugee camp in Iriba, every time he meets the parent of a child in his school area, he reminds them to ask their child to “review the materials they have already learnt at school in order to be ready for their [upcoming] exam.”
As schools in Chad’s refugee camps often serve as points of safety, reconciliation, and community awareness, their closure means that “children are more vulnerable to domestic, sexual and gender-based violence, as well as exploitation,” according to the JRS.
“For the students, the closure of the schools affects their schedules, as they won’t be able to finish the programme,” Abdallah Ahmat, a math teacher at Djabal refugee camp said.
“The community is worried; it is not sure what will happen with the future of our children. The question is when is this all going to finish?”
As the Jesuit agency monitors the situation in the semi-desert country, leaders are developing strategies to continue the school calendar.
As a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of the disease among students, leaders are considering arranging for each class to include no more than 10 students.
Students may also study from home in groups of three or four; teachers go from home to home to check what the students are doing and offering them guidance on the curriculum.
The leadership of JRS has expressed confidence in the teachers in its school programs noting, “Throughout all the uncertainties, one thing is clear: the commitment of our teachers has never wavered.”
“We hope that the situation gets better soon to allow the teachers and students to walk back to school. For the moment, and until the end of the pandemic, we will continue supporting our students with home-based learning,” Makka Abdallah Dehie, a primary teacher at Mile refugee camp, Guereda, told JRS.
With programs across 56 countries across the world, JRS runs seven refugee camps in Chad.
Founded in 1980, the mission of JRS is “to accompany, serve, and advocate on behalf of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons, that they may heal, learn, and determine their own future.”
A version of this story was first published by ACI Africa, CNA’s African news partner. It has been adapted by CNA.
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This is the politics of garb at its worst! Mother Mary wore a veil. Most nuns and sisters wear a veil. The veil is the symbol of female modesty universally around the world and has been for countless generations. By refusing to allow young Muslim maids to wear their version of the veil, we are tacitly saying that they are unworthy to assume the God given virtue of modesty. It’s a poor and discriminatory decision.
I have no problem at all with the school’s banning “Islamic headscarves.”
“Most nuns and sisters wear a veil.” Yes, because they are nuns and sisters; that doesn’t apply to every woman.
“Mother Mary wore a veil.” There seems to be some discussion about what Jewish women of New Testament times, including Our Lady, wore. But in any event, it was unlikely to be an Islamic headscarf.
“By refusing to allow young Muslim maids to wear their version of the veil, we are tacitly saying that they are unworthy to assume the God given virtue of modesty.” No, we are not tacitly saying that. I could as accurately say “By allowing Muslim girls to wear their version of the veil, we are tacitly agreeing that Moslems have the say-so on what contstitutes modesty, and that anybody who doesn’t weir an Islamic veil is ipso facto immodest.”
I note this from another website: “In a country where 95 percent of the population is Muslim, banning the Islamic headscarf even in a Catholic school is considered unacceptable and against the principle of secularism in education in Senegal.” https://africabriefing.org/2019/09/outrage-as-senegal-catholic-school-expels-scarf-wearing-students/ Oh, reeeeeeally? Telling people who are attending a religious school that they aren’t allowed to wear the headgear of a different religion while at school is somehow “against the principle of secularism?”
To echo Anne, infra, I was at early Mass this morning, the Latin Mass in our Parish, which I find spiritually transformative. Two pews in front was a couple clearly from the Mideast, and the wife was wearing a typical middle eastern headscarf. The tradition may have migrated other places with Islamic conquest but the scarf and its common use is a very old regional tradition, long pre-dating Islam, reflecting modesty. Of all the things that might be considered objectionable about Islam, that is not one of them and I hope Catholics anywhere do not succumb to reactionary bigotry.
Thomas, I was watching a film series about St. Teresa of the Andes & all the women portraying her family in the early 20th Century wore solid black coverings in church-almost from head to toe. It looked very similar to what women wear today in Iran.
I’m assuming that tradition came to South America via Spain & perhaps to Spain originally from the Moorish conquest.
Perhaps considering the sectarian violence Christians have suffered in Africa recently there may be reasons we’re not aware of for this action taken by the school?
Just to mention, my Mennonite friends wear headcoverings all the time, as do the Amish & other Christian girls & women. It’s not so much about modesty, though their dress also reflects that virtue, but they understand the headcovering as more about what women wear in prayer. And since their whole lives are lived in prayer, so the covering is always worn too.