Impoverished parents in Chad abandon their children to seek a better life in Europe

Freedom Children’s Orphanage in Chad is the impoverished home of 20 children who were abandoned by their parents. Why did this happen? I interviewed Djamila, the director of the orphanage, to ascertain the danger.

Question: Where are the parents? Did they leave Chad, one of the poorest nations in the world, to seek a better life?

Djamila: Yes. Most of the parents left hoping to relocate in Europe.

Question: Are they successful in doing this?

Djamila: The majority of the parents, we never hear from them again. They travel and disappear forever. Those who continue to communicate with us tell us it takes them years to get any good paying job and make good money.

Question: Do the parents abandon their children because Chad is very poor, or is the weather getting worse, and crop yield is lower, or all those reasons?

Djamila: Parents leave due too many unfortunate circumstances. One reason is the fact that Chad is poor, also there is political instability and religious unrest. We are predominantly farmers but our soil and the spare rainfall that we have make it difficult for people to make earnings from agriculture. On top of all this we have a government that is corrupt and authoritative and does not believe in providing social welfare for its citizens. People just eventually get tired of all this and decide to leave.   

Question: How many people in your community have reached Europe?

Djamila: We do not know for certain what percentage reaches Europe, since we do not hear from the majority of them ever again. There are rumors many settle in Morocco. Also, many are trafficked and sold to slave traders in Libya. They also migrate to other African countries like Nigeria, Niger Republic and Mali, but the people who go to other African countries end up even more impoverished and destitute. Some return home worse than before. 

Question: Do husbands often leave their wives and go to Europe? Do they mail money back if they get there?

Djamila: Yes, husbands and men of all sorts leave for Europe if they can come up with money to travel by foot. They go in large clusters coordinated into groups by foreign agents who take them through undocumented routes that expose them to dangers of all sorts. They pay an average of $2000 To $2500 to agents who take them on the trip, they walk for some part, they take lorries for some part and they eventually cross the sea with boats. If they are successful they mail money back here, to take care of their family and even build big edifices in their village to show everyone that they are successful.

But the majority or people who leave just disappear and we do not hear from them again, they might have died along the road, they might be detained in asylum camps or they got hooked up in the life of drugs and crimes and they just forget home. 

Question: Do parents ever come back or do they ever send for the children to join them?

Djamila: Parents of the children in our care do not come back. None has ever come back but I can confirm that people who make it big send for their children or family members to join them. 

Question: Do you ever feel like trying to go to Europe?

Djamila: I have nursed the idea of going to Europe myself because it is very difficult to survive and etch a living in Chad. But I haven't gone because I am not comfortable with the highly risky pathway of going through the desert and using a small boat to cross the Mediterranean sea.