Africare implemented an Onchocerciasis or River Blindness program in the six southern regions of Chad from 1992 to 2003, greatly contributing to the eradication of the disease from the country. The success of the program prompted a visit to the Africare site in Doba, Chad by former United States President Jimmy Carter, and 2,673,994 people were treated over the course of the program in areas where the disease was endemic.

Africare’s construction of water retention infrastructure, such as dams and pastoral, domestic and vegetable garden wells, has received high praise from Chadians. Some Government of Chad officials consider Africare’s dams as “lakes in the desert.”

In its first three years, the IEEWEP project increased the incomes of more than 1,000 women in Southern Chad by an average of 70%, and these women now possess skills to continue improving their lives and their communities. In 2013, Africare partnered with Shea Touch, a Texas-based and Chadian-owned personal product brand, to contract IEEWEP women to produce key ingredients for the cosmetic products Shea Touch sells world-wide, creating an opportunity for IEEWEP beneficiaries to shatter the $2 per day income ceiling typical for women in the region.

Batha and Ouaddaï Food Security Initiative
Donor: USAID
Location: Batha and Ouaddaï regions
Purpose: Reduce community risk and vulnerability to food insecurity; improve community health and strengthen livelihood systems and resilience

Initiative for the Economic Empowerment of Women Entrepreneurs (IEEWEP)
Donor: ExxonMobil Foundation
Location: Logone Oriental Region
Purpose: Increase the level of skill, productivity, socioeconomic stability, literacy and income of women
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“To me a woman is not less than a man. We have women who are the head of the household, taking care of children. If in the past, we used to say, ‘You’re only a woman,’ it is because we were illiterate. Our fathers did not know that we could go to school and go to work in an office like men do. No, a woman has the same value as a man.”
-Halime Outman, IEEWEP Participant