Scale
Demographic (Males, Females, children, etc...)
Territorial (Football fields, close to an acre)
Density
Territorial (Football fields, close to an acre)
Density
Opened:
2004/03/21
19,400
people (2012.02)
20,079
people (2009)
3.6
square miles = 100362240 square feet ≈1742 football fields
Density:
5173 square feet ≈
480 square meter/person
Low
density
Iridimi is one of the 12 refugee camps in
eastern Chad that are home to nearly 285,000 refugees who fled from the
genocide in Darfur across the border in Sudan. More than half of the refugees
are children, and most have known no other home than these remote camps since
2004. As of February 2012, Iridimi's population was approximately 19,400
refugees, spread across 3.6 square miles of tents and reed shelters in the
desert.
Geographic Region
Coordinates (Google earth lat, long)
Climate and Altitude
Environmental Factors
Earthquake, tsunami, droughts, etc.
15°7′15.11″N
22°7′43.34″E
22°7′43.34″E
Resource
Food, water
Solar Cookers International (SCI)
board member Gabriele Simbriger-Williams visited Iridimi refugee camp in Chad
as part of a team assessing the Darfur refugee solar cooker project implemented
by KoZon Foundation and supported by SCI and Jewish World Watch.
Service Infrastructure (Resources)
Proximity and availability of resources
Hard and soft resources
Communication, internet...etc
Service Infrastructure (Resources)
Proximity and availability of resources
Hard and soft resources
Communication, internet...etc
1 health centre, 9 primary
schools, 28 community centres, 30 water points
A vocational
training centre will be opened in Iridimi camp
to teach young refugees practical skills like sewing, shoe-repairing or
woodworking. A nursery school will also be set up to promote education for
little girls. Boys, too, will get the attention they need, with a new system to
be established to educate those who tend to livestock for a living and thus are
unable to attend school.
Library
Iridimi was chosen as the place where the initial funds
could have the greatest impact, for several reasons:
Iridimi has an existing building that can house the
library, indicated in the above satellite image by the green arrow (image
courtesy Google Maps). Only three of the camps have such suitable buildings; in
the other nine, construction would be required. This allows us to spend more of
our initial funds on books and to start the project sooner, rather than waiting
to raise the additional funds needed for construction. (Note: if you
previously sponsored bricks for library construction, your donation is being
used for stocking the Iridimi library.)
The building is centrally located in the camp and
adjacent to two primary school buildings. Proximity to the school buildings is
especially important because this will make it easier for the teachers, who are
themselves refugees, to use the library. When teachers learn from
educational books in the library, they can share their new knowledge with their
students, multiplying the impact of the books.
The building will have a capacity for 20,000 books. This
is a significant number, but it is really just more than 1 book per capita. How
many books are in all the public libraries, school libraries, and homes in your
town, in comparison with its population?
The building, which serves as a youth center, already
has refugee librarians who manage its current very small collection of
books. This means less training will be required, and the librarians will
already be somewhat familiar with the needs of the camp population.
Regarding the last point, the UN Refugee Agency indicated
that Iridimi's existing books are insufficient not only in quantity, but also
in their relevance to the camp population. They are either too difficult for
children (or newly literate adults) to read, or they do not cover enough
subjects of interest. With funding for a 20,000-book library, we can remedy
this, provided that we have a good understanding of the reading needs of the
refugees. Therefore, Book Wish Foundation has asked the UN Refugee Agency to
conduct a survey of
reading needs in Iridimi.
Management or
Administration (Amount of Aid from Organizations)
Marketing (Brad Pitt)
Dollar amounts from UN Site
Food
Marketing (Brad Pitt)
Dollar amounts from UN Site
Food
Camp management: CARE (UNHCR's
implementation partner)
Additional Considerations
Origin of Disaster, conflict, etc.
How much energy do they consume?
Carbon footprint?
Additional Considerations
Origin of Disaster, conflict, etc.
How much energy do they consume?
Carbon footprint?