Press Releases

She Speaks, She Listens: Radio Program for Darfuri Refugees Tackles Violence Against Women

Photo: Jaime Little Internews reporter Al Haram (left) interviews a Darfuri woman at the Gaga refugee camp in Chad.

(November 10, 2006) The unimaginable unfolds as a matter of daily life for many women who have survived the genocide in Darfur. According to relief workers, some of these women experience a sadness so profound that grief turns to aggression and then forced isolation from the community. It is not uncommon for desperate family members in the refugee camps to leave these women tied up in their tents because of their unpredictable and sometimes violent behavior. 

To help these women who carry the scars of the genocide, physically and emotionally, the Internews gender-based violence reporting team is producing Elles Parlent, Elles Écoutent (She Speaks, She Listens), the region's first radio program dedicated to the refugee women who have suffered and continue to suffer due to ignorance and fear. 

Elles Parlent, Elles Écoutent recently featured a program on services available to women in the camps in an effort to raise awareness and promote healing. The team's Chadian female reporters who spoke with the refugees in the camps learned that these women often cannot sleep for their grief.  

The reporters researched the mental health services available to these women. They interviewed psychologists and trauma experts working in the camps, and produced two 20-minute radio programs — one in local Arabic, the other in French — exploring the options available to those dealing with grief and trauma. Camp workers say they've seen dramatic changes as women choose to stay active and connect with others, and begin to heal from the trauma they have experienced.

Upcoming episodes of Elles Parlent, Elles Écoutent will cover the following subjects: the role of men in sensitization campaigns for gender-based violence; services available to teen mothers, some of whom are raising children resulting from rape or forced marriage; and how to address the risks and fears around collecting firewood – when girls and women leave the camps to collect wood for their cooking fires, they are sometimes threatened, injured or raped.

Internews Network's Humanitarian Information Service produces Elles Parlent, Elles Écoutent as part of its program for mass communication to the Sudanese refugees in Chad and the local population on a radio network that now reaches more than half the camps. This work is made possible by grants from the US State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, USAID's Office of Transition Initiatives and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.