A day in the life of…
Fatimé Abdallah Mahamat

I have been working for the SDC in N’Djamena, the capital city of Chad, since February 2019. Every morning at about 7am, I catch a motorcycle taxi to the office. It’s the easiest way of getting there because it is rush hour at that time with people driving to work, children going to school and women heading to the market. The journey is on a bad road and takes about 10 minutes. Last year, it rained more than usual during the rainy season which caused a lot of flooding. Apart from damaging roads, the rivers in spate also destroyed hundreds of houses and 2,700 hectares of farmland.

As a landlocked country in the Sahel zone, Chad is very vulnerable to climate change. Except when there happen to be floods, a large part of the country suffers from chronic water scarcity. The rural population that is dependent on agriculture and livestock farming – the two milking cows of our economy, as we say here – has been hit hard.

The SDC helps strengthen the country’s resilience to climate change by consolidating knowledge about water resources through mapping. Various maps are being developed, for example to improve management of ground and surface water.

I am responsible for projects on economic development and food security. I travel several times a year to get a first-hand impression of progress and interact with the beneficiaries of our projects.

When I get to the office, I read my emails before I enjoy a short morning break with my colleagues after which I attend to my work.

Farming in Chad is rudimentary, and yields are low. Food supply is often precarious which leads to social conflicts. Switzerland facilitates access to high-quality seeds that are adapted to prevailing environmental conditions so that farmers can improve their yields and income. The Chadian Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (ITRAD) develops improved seed varieties especially for millets, maize, peanuts and sorghum. This will be upscaled by producers and seed organisations to ensure availability in the market. The project is targeted at about 200,000 enterprises.

One of my other projects relates to vocational education and career mentoring for young people who either did not complete their schooling or never went to school. Theoretical and practical courses are offered at centres on the lines of the Swiss dual system of vocational education and training.

The programme covers areas such as agriculture, tailoring, electricity and solar energy, masonry, catering, woodwork, two-wheeler maintenance and welding. In the latter, young people learn to build ploughs and other implements for agricultural use. This has been much appreciated both by the young people and farmers in general.