1.INTRODUCTION:

• Chad Republic is a land locked country located at the very heart of Africa. It shares border with Libya in the north, with Soudan in the east, with Nigeria and Niger in the west and in the south with Cameroon and Central Africa. The official languages of Chad Republic are French and Arabic. However, there is a multitude of local languages and dialects one of which is Ngambay that we must study.
• Chad religious background is a checker board. The majority are Muslims. Both Catholics and protestants come second. A small percentage remains animist or traditional religion. The Catholic Church has been present here since 1929 with the first arrival of the Spiritan missionaries.
• The SVDs have been in Chad since early 2003. We accepted our first parish in 2004. It was a meaningful arrangement with the local bishop of the diocese of Gore that the pioneer SVD team accepted this parish that bears the name of our Founder just on the occasion of the canonization of St. Arnold Janssen and St. Joseph Freinademetz.
• At the present, the SVDs work in 3 different parishes (of two dioceses) and the construction of our formation house is well under way in another diocese. Our strength of 13 young, open and energetic confreres from 8 different nationalities is simply impressive (4 Togolese, 2 Congolese, 2 Indonesians, 1 Indian, 1 Angolan, 1 American, 1 Malagasy, and 1 Polish)
• Chad mission is, more than ever, ready to welcome more confreres to our CTP/OTP program. In fact, our CTP/OTP program is quite flexible and extremely rich in first-hand experience of mission as we are still a very young mission (only 14 years of age). If you are interested in inter-faith, inter-religious dialogs, Chad mission is where you want to go. We have protestants, Muslims, nomads and animists for neighbors. If you are interested in social works such as public health, peace building, poverty reduction, clean drinking water problem, Chad mission is where you want to go. Everything is first-hand experience. You learn as you work. Or if you are interested in language studying, bible ministry, or cross-cultural environment, Chad mission is the place. In the context of our SVD parishes, we have the Ngambays, the Lakas, the Kos, the Mboums, the Saras… Different ethnic group provides different opportunity for evangelization. We also have youth ministry, pastoral exposure, schoolwork among children. OTP/CTP confreres should be open and readily disposed to learn more about various cultures in Chad.
• In 15 years of our existence in Chad, we have welcomed 2 CTP confreres. The first CTP student was Frt. Huy Tran from the Chicago province (2013-2015), who has returned to Chad after his ordination and is currently working here. In addition, we have recently welcomed the second OTP student Frater Paulo Cipriano from the Angolan province. Paulo comes to us from Brazil where he has finished his 2^nd year of theology.