Adèle Poukade: her daily fight for survival

Published on 7 Mar. 2019, Updated on 6 Feb. 2024

Adèle Poukade, 39 years old fled from her home with her 10 children. She lives in the Evêché camp, near the city of Alindao. Adèle is a former nurse who built a new house with her bare hands. Her story is about her daily life in the camp and her … garden!

I was born in Pavika, southeast of Alindao. I was a nurse in a health center there. When the war broke out in our region in May 2017, I fled with my children to Alindao. My husband passed away in the midst of the events that same month. I settled in the Evêché camp where I built a new house, on my own.

I had no job, no husband. I had to find a job, anything, so I started collecting wood, assembling it into bundles to be able to sell them downtown. A bundle can be sold for 500 XAF franc (0.87 dollars), it goes without saying that no one can feed 11 mouths with that.

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To be able to put food on the table, I grew my own garden on a small patch of land right in front of the house. I planted several vegetables, and the children are in charge of watering them. It allowed me to take a break and be able to volunteer as a nurse in the camp. Every weekend I go downtown to sell bundles of wood in the Alindao Market. As soon as the country gets back on its feet, I will go back to my home, to my old life and I will keep gardening and planting vegetables.