Plan Togo: what we do

Plan’s work in Togo, which is centered on the rights of the child, focuses on 5 key areas:

• economic security
• healthy start in life
• education
• child protection
• assistance in emergencies

Economic security is a key foundation of children’s rights. We focus on the most vulnerable families, enhancing their income from agricultural activities, providing access to financial services and supporting them to diversify their sources of income. We are also making village savings and loan associations available to more communities.

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Plan Togo

Plan has been working in Togo since 1988, helping poor children to access their rights. Plan also provides financial programmes and supports women in rural areas to take a lead in their communities and set up their own businesses through a village loans and credits association projects.

Our programmes benefits 22,415 children in 242 communities in Togo.

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Seeing Africa - and My Father - with New Eyes

Togo is a different kind of Africa than I had visited before. There were no tightly packed safari trucks toting westerners around the savannah. No picturesque beaches covered with lounging tourists. In fact, we didn’t encounter any tourists while there. Life in Togo is difficult. But the people I met seemed genuinely happy.

When we first arrived in Kparatao, the village where my father served in the Peace Corps, we had no idea what our reception would be. We honestly expected to shake a few hands, drink some Fantas, take some pictures, and head out. That imagined scenario couldn’t be farther from what actually happened. We were greeted by hundreds of people, children and adults alike, waiting to usher us into the village. They danced, played music, spoke to us, gave us gifts, and more. They welcomed us into the village like old friends. It was really unbelievable.

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Plan Donates Bicycles to Community Health Workers in Togo

Health care can be very expensive for families in West Africa. Preventable diseases such as malaria often affect young children putting them at a greater risk of contracting the disease. In Togo, over 48 percent of hospital admissions and 53 percent of home health visits are malaria related.

With Plan’s support, a group of volunteer community health care workers in the Plateaux region, a region most affected by malaria, have come together to provide health care in their communities.

Volunteers have made regular house-to-house checkups to ensure that families are healthy. However, without transportation, the health workers travel on foot making it difficult to reach everyone in the community.

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Real choices, real lives, real girls: del 2

When it comes to rights like gender equality and universal education, the study is revealing some very encouraging developments.

Some quotes from the girls and their families, about the importance of education for girls:

“I want to be a teacher when I grow up and I like to wash plates and bowls and help my mum collect firewood.”Chhea, aged 6, Cambodia

“My parents cannot read and write. They didn’t receive any formal education. My mother forced me to give up school in order to assist my elder sister who delivered a baby in Cotonou. It affected me and I never forgot it.”Marcelle’s mother, Benin

“Whenever she comes back from school she repeats wonderfully all that she has learned. This is a source of pride for the family.”Maridiyatou’s mother, Togo

"A girl should be given priority to study because there’s a better chance girls will graduate.”Edwina’s father, the Philippines

All 142 girls in the study should be starting school this year. We wish them the best, and will continue to follow them until 2015, the year the Millennium Development Goals are set to be achieved.

Want to learn more about the study, and meet 8 of the girls participating? Click here to read the report, and to explore our interactive map, focusing on 8 girls in different countries.

Børn med handicap finder deres stemme i Togo

Børn med handicap i Afrika har længe været stigmatiseret. på tværs af kontinentet, er mange med fysiske eller psykiske handicap nødt til at tigge fordi deres familier ser dem som en indtægtskilde. Nogle, især i landdistrikterne, bliver simpelthen forsømt. Ofte vil et handicappet barn blive gemt væk af en skamfuld familie - eller misbrugt. Når de begynder at nå voksenalderen vil de have svært ved at finde et job. I Togo, Vestafrika, er handicappede børn omsider ved at blive anerkendt som et reelt socialt problem.

Village chief Fousseni Adam Alakpa siger: “Within our communities, this issue is a very serious problem – to the extent that a child born with a handicap is considered a divine curse. As a result, these children are often hidden, because you do not want other people to see, and neighborhood gossip makes the parents of the child uncomfortable.”

Plan International uddanner lokalsamfund om handicap og handicappede børns behov. Programmet i Togo - der er kendt som Restore Children with Disabilities Across Community-based Rehabilitation Approach (RESH) - har til formål at reintegrere børn med handicap i samfundet.

Baboïma, 14, er studerende på det lokale gymnasium i Tchébebé siger at: “When the project agents came, they gathered us together, made a plan and increased awareness. In the village people now consider handicapped children to be like able-bodied children. Now parents take their children into care. They bring together able-bodied and handicapped children; they understood that we must love each other and consider all children as human beings.”


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