On a recent trip to Togo, a small country in West Africa, I was once again impressed and amazed at the incredible resilience of the human spirit. Over the course of one week I had the honor of visiting many remote villages where people are clinging to life at the subsistence level. While the soil was rich, and obviously productive, limited access to markets and the lack of exchange of innovative ideas has kept people trapped in cycles of ignorance and poverty.

This is not to say that the people that I met were ignorant or in any way incapable of learning advanced concepts or life-skills, only that they have not had the opportunities of exposure to most of them. In many of the poor mud brick homes that I visited, I noticed that there was often a makeshift “blackboard” imbedded into the walls of the hut. Here, children would practice their problems and work on their homework assignments. I was amazed to see complex mathematical formulas, geometry problems and intricate drawings, illustrating the human immune defense system or some other science lesson. Without the aid of textbooks, students were learning complex concepts with chalk and slate!

I was intrigued. How was it possible to have expressions of such intelligence on the walls, with absolutely nothing on the mud floors but a few beat-up pots, some hoes, and a pail of dirty river water? Where was the system breaking down? Why is it that people in our day should still have to live like this?

I was only in the country for a short time and so my assessment is limited, but here are some of the things that I observed while I was there that I believe are contributing to the extreme poverty in Togo.

The first thing that stood out right away for me was the almost non-existence of the normal development initiatives that I usually see when visiting impoverished countries. It reminded me of the days when I first started documenting development work about 15 years ago. Back then it was not uncommon for children to break into tears of fright and shock as I would step out of the jeep, because I was the first white guy they had ever seen! Today, all of that has changed. Even in remote regions of poor countries it is very common to see the handiwork of international development and AID agencies. A new road built by Japan, a bridge as a gift from the people of Germany, wells and pumps from Canada, clinics and schools from Sweden, or a school feeding program from the USA. As we drove around I noted a distinct lack of these basic stepping stones out of poverty.

Here is what has happened. From 1969 to 1992, Togo was run as a virtual dictatorship by one man, under a one party system. Ironically, that was not the problem. During this time Togo was doing quite well economically, when compared to some of its neighboring countries. People would drive to Togo to do their shopping and the tourism industry was bringing in a good revenue. Under pressure from the world community, a new constitution, established in 1992, called for a multi-party political system and democratic elections. Unfortunately, the transition from dictatorship to a multi-party democracy is rarely smooth and when outspoken members of opposition parties began to mysteriously “disappear” in the middle of the night, human-rights organizations pressed for and got international sanctions to be imposed on the country. Trade with many countries was halted, goods and services took a real hit, tourist agencies diverted their clients to other destinations, and the streams of development and aid money virtually dried up.

Most agree that sanctions never work. They have no effect on the lifestyle of the people in power and only bring misery and abject poverty to the general population. And yet this horrendous practice continues, even today, against a number of countries in the world. When we try to end human rights violations, we need to be careful not to create more then we solve!

The second thing that I noticed was that there seemed to be a huge dichotomy between what the students were learning in their grass-hut schools and what they needed to know to live healthier, more productive lives. While they were learning math, science, history, geography, and languages, they were obviously not learning basic health and sanitation, agricultural, entrepreneurial or income-generating skills. On the day that we visited a rural school where ADRA was conducting a HIV/AIDS education program, we took one of the 16 year old girls aside for an interview. I was shocked to hear her say that this was the first time she had heard how HIV was transmitted, and how thankful she was that ADRA had come to her school today. How could it be that when HIV/AIDS is one of the biggest crises facing Africa today that AIDS education is not part of the regular curriculum?

In another village, on another day, one of the ladies that I interviewed told me that before ADRA came to work in their community, they knew nothing. She said, “It is as if we were living in the dark all of this time and ADRA has come and turned on the light.” What was ADRA teaching her and her friends that the schools had not? ADRA had come with a simple program of life-skills instruction. Principles of health and nutrition, gender and child rights issues, income generating programs, and the value of working together in co-operative groups.

A third problem comes down to a matter of economics. Even though the constitution of Togo calls for free education for all students through the primary grades, in reality there is no such thing as a “free” education. There are always real costs involved, which can be extremely difficult when you are basically living off of what you can grow in your garden or small field. Uniforms, supplies and school fees, all add up, and the cost only continues to grow as the student advances until by the time the student reaches the secondary level it costs a family about $60/year to send a child to school. While that might not seem so bad, consider the fact that the average family income is $120/year and most families have four or five surviving children. At some point parents have to make some very difficult choices.  

Who goes to school and who stays at home to help in the fields, fetch firewood and water, or worse, be farmed out as a domestic worker for a wealthier family in one of the towns. Almost always it is the boys who stay in school the longest. In one village, as I made my way up through the grade levels, I noticed fewer and fewer girls. The cute grade one students with their bright new uniforms showed a nice even representation of girls and boys. By time I made it to the seventh grade I counted only three girls in a class of 42. What a sad waste of human recourses! Bright and eager minds with the same qualifications, ability and potential as any girls in Western countries, are forced to quit school and at a very early age begin a life of poverty and misery – one more generation of bare mud floors in a one room shack, all for the lack of $60/year!

The local ADRA country director, Todd Reese, who was kind enough to take time out of his busy schedule to personally take me out to the villages, has made many of these same observations and with the help of his parents has established a small program designed to help a few rural girls stay in school. With the help of local teachers and the village council, girls who are showing real initiative and excellent grades in school, but are having to quit because of family finances, are selected for a program of sponsorship.

I loved the idea! For about $60/ year this program can move a girl one year closer to a poverty-free life! I decided that this might be a great program to get involved with. But was it appropriate? Over the years, many mistakes have been made in the field of development because the program implemented ended up disrupting the community and causing more problems then it solved. Because many factors of local culture and social structure were not taken into consideration or local input sought or valued, programs that looked good on paper, totally failed. They just were not appropriate for the local culture or group.

The concept of “sponsor a child” has spawned many wonderful programs around the world that has transformed millions of lives and made wonderful connections between the families of North and South. But in recent years their have been some question about the appropriateness of singling out one or two children in a village for these programs and the problems that can cause as they relate to the other families and children in the village.

I asked the two local ADRA workers who had been working in the village culture for the last ten years what effect they thought a program like this would have in the villages of Togo. They were enthusiastically unanimous that it would be extremely positive. They said that it would be perceived not as a random singling out as much as a reward for scholastic diligence. Other girls would work harder in their studies in hopes that they too might be selected for the program, and all parents in the village would take notice that foreigners from a far off land considered their daughters to be worthy investments. If people from America and Canada believe that it is just as important to educate girls as it is boys, perhaps they should too! 

Before leaving for Togo I had received some funds from my brother’s church study-group in Aldergrove, British Columbia. They had recently decided as a group, that rather then just sit around and talk about the importance love, they needed to show some love in some tangible way. With some sacrifice and some effort they had managed to raise a tidy little sum in just a few short weeks. My brother knew I was making this trip to Africa and convinced the group that I would be able to connect them with some people who needed some love! This program looked like an answer to their prayers and mine.

We consulted with the local teachers and asked them to identify four girls in the village who were doing excellent work but were in danger of having to quit because of the lack of funds. A few minutes later I found myself interviewing four beautiful young girls. Among other things, I asked them what they were hoping to become when they had finished school. The first one was quick to say that she wanted to become a doctor as did the second girl. The third insisted that she wanted to be a teacher and the fourth a nurse. If I had asked a thousand girls the same question, I doubt any would have said, “I want to be a subsistence farmer like my mother.” Even girls in Togo dream. Unfortunately, very few reach their dreams or a mere fraction of their potential.

It was good enough for me. Subject to approval by their village council, I would use a portion of the Aldergove Church group’s love gift to sponsor these four girls for two more years of education. With Todd’s help I will have to keep an eye the progress of these four girls and see what more can be done once their scholarship has ended.

One of the things that the Judge of this Earth will say as he welcomes the faithful into a new eternal kingdom is “I was a stranger, and you took me in…”

By “taking in” four young strangers, a group of people from a church in Canada have spread their love to Togo. Thank-you!

As a footnote to this story, the sanctions imposed against Togo still prevent almost all aid and development funding to get through. The humanitarian agency of ADRA Canada has somehow found a way to get past the restrictions and currently sponsor about 60% of the excellent programs being conducted by ADRA Togo. If you would like to help ADRA Canada in their work for the poor people of Togo, please visit www.adra.ca

In the year 2005, the aging dictator of Togo finally died and was replaced by his son. Encouraging progress has been made toward meeting the requirements for having the sanctions lifted. It is hoped that as early as next year the world will once again establish normal trade and aid relationships with Togo.