On August 4th, the education center Markas al Nour had a ceremony to give certificates to those who had recently finished a class.
Spectators and students listening to the speeches.
Students and guests attended the ceremony.
The first person in each class will be allowed to continue to study French at Markas al Nour for free, up to level six.
The secretary speaks during the ceremony.
The ceremony was covered by local radio and Al Nassr TV.
The administration of Markas al Nour would like to wish all students success in their future studies. All new learners are also welcome to come study in the center.
2020 had plenty of success and challenges. The biggest challenge was the financial crisis which forced the closure of our Markas al Nour education center. Nonetheless, the center reopened its doors in order to keep offering high quality instruction. Our activities in Moussoro and Hadjer Hadid were slowed down by covid-19, but were still able to adapt and continue. We will continue working together on our common objectives in education and development in 2021.
Here are the number of beneficiaries from our activities in 2020:
Project
Beneficiaries
Markas al Nour – N’Djamena
288
Education classes – Moussoro
203
Animal health videos – Moussoro
120
Water, health, and mapping – Hadjer Hadid
3800
Sewing and distributing masks – Hadjer Hadid
800
Health and cultural videos – Hadjer Hadid
100
Total
5311
We would like to thank all those who helped us continue advancing our goals.
Tawisa 3 was a project that ran from July 2019 – July 2020. The project has completed mapping and survey for the Chokoyan Canton of the Ouaddai State of Eastern Chad. This included mapping and surveying over 184 villages and their improved and unimproved water sources. Printed maps are being shared with all stakeholders in the region and detailed data has been provided to the government to use in its geospatial database.
Additionally, a pump repair program was initiated in three villages within the Chokoyan Canton. These villages had existing broken pumps. Service au Sahel ran a two-day water committee training, introducing cost replacement schedules, record keeping, management of a cash box and savings goals for maintenance and repair, in each of these villages. After the training the pump was repaired. Monitoring visits have been conducted each month post the repair, tracking and working with the village to implement the training received. These monitoring visits are continuing into the next Tawisa project until the full year of monitoring is completed.
Additionally, water committees and villages who received new wells during the previous Tawisa 2 project were monitored on a quarterly basis, encouraging them to save for future repairs that will be needed for their new well. The Tawisa 3 project finished within budget, having spent 92% of total funds.
Service au Sahel Tchad, working with the Provincial representative of the Ministry of Youth and Sport in the Bahr el Gazel, launched a one-week computer training class for the young people involved in different associations.
The ceremony took place at the House of Culture in Moussoro. This video was taken by the National Office of Audiovisual Media (ONAMA) et published during the evening news on 20 July 2020.
2019 was a difficult year for the association. Even with many successes, the general financial climate in Chad slowed down several of our projects. Nonetheless, our work in education and development impacted thousands of people:
Projet
Bénéficiaires
Markas al Nour
818
Cours décentralisés
49
Markaz Attafahum
13
Projets de Développement – Hadjer Hadid
516
Projets de Développement – Moussoro
1075
Total
2471
We would like to thank all those who helped us continue advancing our goals.
In January 2020 the association, in partnership with the regional federation of animal farmers from the Bahr el Gazel, and with the technical support of the Ministry of Animal Husbandry, gave a training on animal health.
The videos are available on the following Youtube playlist:
The videos were done in the local language, Dazaga, also called Goran.
The latest update on the Tawisa 3 project is now available. A summary is that
Data collection in the Ouadi Hamra region has been finished. A final map has been printed in N’Djamena.
A total of 27 pumps have been located in the region with 25 of them broken when surveyed. All villages with broken pumps have been invited to participate in the program.
Villages who received new wells and water committee training in the previous Tawisa project were followed up with again during the 3rd quarter.
The SAS compound has continued to be maintained and improved.
A new level 1 computer class took place between December 2019 and January 2020, focusing on Microsoft Word. The following video shows what the class was like and the students’ reactions to what they have learned.
A dental health training and clinic was held at the provincial hospital in Moussoro, Bahr el Gazel from November 1 – 8.
The training started with two days of theory: the anatomy of teeth and gums and nerves along with the uses of explorers and forceps and elevators. After learning the theory, seven local men began seeing their first patients.
Their first attempts took a long time: some teeth broke partially as they learned how much force to apply and how best to gain leverage. As the week went on, they increased in skill and confidence. By mid-week, they were needing tools faster than they could be sterilized, and had to slow down. By the end of the week the men had gotten into a rhythm and could skillfully extract even the most stubborn molars.
We were slightly worried about having enough patients during the week because the local radio station wasn’t working and so we didn’t have an easy way to publicize what we were doing. But we needn’t have been worried—good news travels fast and we had more patients by the end of the week than we had time to treat.
At the end of the week we held a ceremony to give out certificates to the seven men who had completed the training. Dental instruments were given either to one man or to pairs of men who were working in the same place. During that ceremony, the representative of the Health Minister said the following:
“Having trained dental personnel in Moussoro is like ‘taking a big thorn’ out of the flesh of the people of Moussoro.”
Representative of the Health Minister
And the initial feedback we’ve gotten has confirmed this. One doctor who was trained called to say “thank you thank you thank you”. “I’ve just arrived and the people of Michemire [105km west of Moussoro] are so thankful that I can pull teeth. Before they used to have to travel for help.” Finally, a friend of mine overheard someone saying “the international NGOs who are here are very busy but we don’t know what they’re doing all the time. You guys have done something concrete by helping pull our rotten teeth.”
