Kobé, in eastern Chad, is home to one of the region’s largest refugee camps. Thousands of families who fled the conflicts in Darfur survive here. Water was rationed, insufficient, a daily source of tension. Lines lasted hours. Arguments erupted. The most vulnerable — children, the elderly — were always served last. Water4Chad decided to act … Read more

In Massakory, the health center’s maternity ward operated without running water. Midwives washed their hands in basins filled in the morning and prayed there would be enough left for the next delivery. Postpartum infections were common. Newborns fell ill in their very first hours of life. When Water4Chad drilled a well right next to the … Read more

Amdjarass lies at the far reaches of Chad, where the Ennedi desert seems to stretch on forever. Here, water is rarer than gold. Traditional wells were drying up one by one. Young people left for the cities, leaving behind ghost villages. The elders watched their land die in silence. Water4Chad took on the challenge. Drilling … Read more

The Kanem region bears the scars of Lake Chad, which retreats year after year. Entire communities that once lived from fishing now face stretches of cracked earth. Clean drinking water has become an unattainable luxury. The women of Kanem walked up to six hours round-trip to fill their jars with brackish water. Zara, a mother … Read more

Moundou, Chad’s second-largest city, hides behind its main roads neighborhoods where clean water remains a mirage. In one such neighborhood, families depended on a single hand-dug well that often ran dry. Water bought from vendors cost a fortune — up to a third of a household’s daily income. The poorest drank river water, with all … Read more

Diguel Ngobo is Water4Chad’s 134th borehole. This neighborhood in N’Djamena, the capital, embodies a cruel paradox: living in a capital city and having no access to clean water. The residents of Diguel Ngobo knew the same suffering as the most isolated villages — disease, endless queues, the unbearable cost of water. When Mahamat Moussa, founder … Read more

For generations, the women of Amgobo walked four hours under a merciless sun to bring back murky water drawn from a pond shared with livestock. Children suffered from chronic diarrhea. Girls missed school. Life revolved around a single obsession: finding water. When the Water4Chad team arrived with their drilling equipment, the entire village gathered. The … Read more

In Amesinena, the primary school had 120 enrolled students, but rarely more than 60 showed up. Every morning, dozens of girls left to fetch water instead of going to class. Even the boys, exhausted from chores, fell asleep over their notebooks. The headmaster, Idriss, watched his school empty a little more each year. The arrival … Read more

Halimé was 14, but her shoulders carried the weight of a grown woman. Every day in Farcha, a neighborhood on the outskirts of N’Djamena, she carried 20 liters of water on her head from a water source three kilometers away. Her knees ached. Her dream of becoming a nurse drifted further with every step. The … Read more

Kirtchia, deep in the heart of Chad. In the dry season, temperatures soar past 117°F (47°C). Ponds evaporate. Animals die. And the villagers dig the sand with their bare hands, hoping to find muddy, often contaminated water. The village elders had lost all hope. When the Water4Chad truck made its way down the dusty tracks, … Read more