The "Vulnerable": in humanitarian lingo, this refers to the elderly, children who have been orphaned or separated from their parents, and people who are mentally or physically handicapped. In the midst of a population whose fate is anything but enviable, these are the people who have an even greater need for special care and attention. 

"When we do the food distributions, we help them to gain access to the distribution corridors, or we just go to get their rations for them," said Marie Funda, head of the socio-community sector at the Kounoungou camp for displaced people, managed by Secadev, the national Caritas in Chad. In this way, the most vulnerable do not have to be subjected to this trying but necessary monthly exercise. 

The Kounoungou camp has a list of more than 600 vulnerable people, 611 to be exact, but the number is being constantly updated, when, for example, there is a death, or in sadly less frequent cases, when a child is reunited with his parents through the efforts of the International Committee of the Red Cross. 

"This list is used when we have the monthly food distributions, but it does more than that," said Ms. Funda. "We try to regularly organise an activity or a distribution meant specifically for this category of persons, which also allows us to check on the evolution of their situation at regular intervals," she said. 

This time, the vulnerable are receiving blankets, which are supplied by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, and are distributed in different areas of the camp over five or six days, since often the vulnerable groups have limited mobility. Other times, the gift is a distribution of pieces of soap, or the colorful veils which Sudanese women drape themselves in invariably, depending on what is coming in from Secadev's partner agencies. But during the present rainy season, when the nights are cool and even during the day the temperature can suddenly fall, there's nothing more needed than a warm blanket. 

Caritas Internationalis is a confederation of 162 Catholic relief, development, and social service organisations present in over 200 countries and territories.