“Chad, protestants against misery”: A documentary to discover on France 2 this Sunday

Sunday July 17, discover on Présence Protestante (France 2) the documentary “Chad, Protestants against misery”, to meet Chadian Protestants who are mobilizing to save lives, souls and their country.

In Chad, poverty is everywhere, glaring, fatal, even more overwhelming than the sun. Education, culture, nutrition, protection of the weakest, health, etc., the needs are immense. Stuck between Libya to the north, Sudan and Niger to the east and west, and the Central African Republic to the south, the country's politico-religious situation is extremely fragile.

After the death of President Idriss Déby in 2021, during a military operation, Mahamat Idriss Déby, his son, took over in a climate of disengagement of pacification troops, particularly French. The situation, already fragile, has become even more so and the human toll today is clear: at least 42% of the Chadian population lives below the national poverty line.

How to be a witness of the Gospel in a country where basic needs are so cruelly lacking? How to share the immaterial: faith, salvation in Christ, grace, when the material is so lacking? To report on the situation of Protestants in Chad – 15% of the population – and to try to answer these questions, director Chris Huby went there.

Witness to grace, he saw how Djimadoum Obed, a doctor at the Béthanie center (half PMI, half orphanage) struggles to provide assistance to toddlers; how he manages to do this thanks to the proteins of the Moringa leaf, a plant produced in Koumra, in the south, by another Protestant mission; how Pastor Aldo Djimalngar Madjibaye, of the Entente des Eglises et Missions Evangéliques du Tchad (EEMET) announces the gospel in “the neighborhoods” of Betsaleel; how has Guinebor II hospital from the Mennonite mission, in the Muslim sector of Ansinene, the doctors provide care, healing and assistance to everyone, without distinction; or how the censor of the Evangelical College of Ndjamena, Mr. Kagdombaye carries the vision of raising a generation of educated, committed and caring citizens.

In Chad, Protestants from all walks of life have decided to create a virtuous and salutary chain. Each is a link of grace. But, as pastor Naguéral Toidibaye points out, this chain will only hold together if it is supported by a desire for unity… and by prayer, from everyone.

A documentary directed by Chris Huby and produced by france.tv studio and Galaxy Presse. It will be broadcast Sunday, July 17 at 10 a.m. on Protestant presence (France 2) and available in replay on France TV until July 24.

Chris Huby is a director and image reporter (JRI) for the Galaxy Presse agency. A great regular in conflict zones in Africa and the Middle East, he was one of the rare French journalists to cover in 2020/2021 the conflict between the government of Mozambique and the jihadist group "Al Sunnah wa Jama'ah". , in the province of Cabo Delgado. After “Algeria, Protestants under pressure! (May 2019) this is the second country where Chris has traveled for Presence Protestante to encounter the active grace of God in lives.

Christopher Zimmerlin