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“Don’t Forget Us”

The Education and Gender-Based Violence Protection Needs of Adolescent Girls from Darfur in Chad

Authored by: Lori Heninger and Megan McKenna

Categories: Human Rights, Violent Conflict
Sub-Categories: Human Development, National Security Forces and Armed Groups, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV), Sexual and Reproductive Health
Country: Chad
Region: Sub-Saharan Africa
Year: 2005
Citation: Heninger, Lori and Megan McKenna. "Don’t Forget Us": The Education and Gender-Based Violence Protection Needs of Adolescent Girls from Darfur in Chad. New York: Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children, 2005.

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Executive Summary

“Thousands of girls and women have been raped and/or beaten in Darfur and in Chad. In most camps the Women’s Commission visited, there were reports of women who had been raped by the members of the janjaweed militia. Some of these rapes have resulted in pregnancy. Pregnancy due to rape is an extremely complicated issue; it is culturally unacceptable to be pregnant outside of marriage, and to be carrying a child fathered by the “enemy” compounds the problem dramatically. Health staff reported that women pregnant as a result of rape did not report the rape due to the social stigma attached. There were some reports of women abandoning babies of the janjaweed; however, in other camps programs were being developed with refugee communities to integrate and support mothers and their children born as a result of rape.”