Child sponsorship update from Lomé, Togo

Update for child sponsors from the SOS Children's Village Lomé, Togo from Winter 2007.

Dear Sponsors, dear Friends,

As we are getting ready to start a new year, we are pleased to express to you our best wishes for the year 2008. We still greatly appreciate your assistance to our country Togo which is timidly making its ways out of its political, social and economic crisis and is not yet able to adequately protect the children in need. The pluralistic parliamentary elections have just ended and Togolese expect that will constitute a new lease to boost the development of the country.

Your generosity enabled us this year to care for 89 children, that is 43 girls and 46 boys.

Admission
Three (03) new children have found again a family setting at Vesos Lomé. They are two little girls (Valentina and Bella) who are sheltered in house 8, and a little boy called Komi in house 3.

Family Life
Like the other years, the celebration of All Mothers’ day this year was marked by a day out by the mothers at Sogakope in Ghana about a hundred kilometres far from the Togo-Ghana border. It was the opportunity for the Director of the village to appreciate the dedication of these mothers and to encourage them to keep on working every day with love in the interest of the children of the Vesos.

The SOS day was then celebrated on June 23, 2007. It was characterised by the selection of the child of the year, that is the child who has distinguished himself / herself with his / her academic and house work and by the distribution of gifts to all the children. Gloria from House 5 was designated the winner of the year.

In order to reinforce the children’s faith and to prepare them to a radiant spiritual life, Vesos assisted a dozen of children to make their first communion during the Easter mass at Saint Rita Catholic Parish of the area. A little feast was organized at the village to celebrate the event.

During the long vacation, many activities were organised for the children. One can cite among others, cultural exchange visits with the children of Vesos Kara and Vesos Tema (Ghana) where the children had the chance to learn English and take part in vacation courses. The mothers and aunts had a week-trip to Vesos Dassa zoume in the Republic of Benin.

Growing up at Lomé, Togo

Academic activities
Globally, the school results are satisfactory. At the primary school, the pass rate is 94%, and at the secondary level, the rate is 86.95%. The academic year 2007-2008 came about on October 17, 2007 after a month – delay due to heavy rainfalls in the country this year.

Training
The Directors of villages enjoyed a development programme by taking part in training at Marrakech in Morocco in April 2007. The Director of the village, the Social worker and the youth instructors participated in the meeting of the pedagogical committee in June and in October in order to conduct the orientation of the children according to their school results. The SOS mothers and aunts were also trained in the growth and psychomotor development, in gestures that save and in maltreatment, as part of their annual training.

Youngsters
SOS youngsters keep on showing their determination to be successful. It is the case of Yao Gabriel who joined the independent children in September after a ceremony, in his honour at Vesos in the presence of children’s parents, mothers, aunts, instructors and friends. He is a young boy who was brilliant at school. After having his one year post-graduate diploma in banking studies at Dakar in Senegal, he is definitely working in a bank in Togo. In April 2007, youngsters were trained so that those living in natural families and in communities prepare their end-of-year examinations. The National adviser for the development of youngsters talked to the instructors and the Director of the village about the different approaches to make a youngster autonomous. Trips were organized before the youngsters went on vacation; for instance, the young girls went to Kpalimé in the west, 120 km far from Lomé and the young boys travelled to Atakpame, 170 km far from Lomé in the North-East to get together, enjoy themselves and exchange views on the Convention of Children’s Right, self-esteem, job interview, sex education and many other themes youngsters are interested in.

Events at Lomé, Togo

Family Reinforcement Programme
In order to increase the resources of families, the family reinforcement programme initiated a partnership project with a micro-finance institution to finance IGA (Income Generating Activities). In Lomé and Kara, beneficiaries were at first trained in management before the presentation of the project. After the opening of schools on October 17, 2007, the first beneficiaries received funds to launch their project.
In Kara, the programme firstly puts a lot of effort into the training of parents and tutors to reinforce their capacity to care for children. The identification of families capable of doing an income generating activity and the study of projects followed. At last, the funds were released after classes resumed.

The programme continues to develop partnership with various groups: Committees for the development of Neighbourhood, UNICEF and many NGOs of Togo.

Visits - Donations
In May and June, about thirty seamen of “Bâtiment atelier Jules Vernes” of the French Navy voluntarily contributed to renew the electricity and plumbing system of Vesos. They then gave the opportunity to 72 Vesos children to visit the ship Jules Vernes. The children’s village was also visited by many personalities and associations so as to support the action of SOS children’s villages though various donations in cash and in kind: they are the representatives of Great Priory of Scotland, Saint Theresa choir of Ouagadougou (Burkina-Faso) and Saint Grégoire of the University of Lomé. One should also note the visit of “Togo Cellulaire”, a mobile telephone company which donated school stationery during the opening of the academic year. The association “Action against Malaria” disinfected the Vesos in September 2007 through spraying and fumigation.

Dear Sponsors and dear Friends that is a brief summary of the news from SOS children’s village institution of Lomé you assist. We thank you and wish you a good and happy new year. We hope to still count on you among our partners.

The National Director

Amina Kodjovi-Numado