In most all of the villages that I visited in Togo, we were greeted and hosted by the village chief, flanked by his most honorable counselors. After a round of introductions and greetings, the chief, dressed in all of his best African regalia, would express his personal appreciation for all of the good things that ADRA was doing in the village. The words, spoken in the native dialect, would be translated into French, the official language of Togo, by the local ADRA worker, and then be passed onto me in English by the ADRA country director, who admits to only ten weeks of study in the French language. Still, regardless of any words that may have been lost in translation, the message was clear, if only by the warm expressions on the faces of the chief and his staff, that they were extremely grateful for ADRA coming to work in their village. No other agency had come to help them. The things that ADRA were doing were transforming the village and the lives of his people.

This requisite meeting of protocol, typical of many of the villages that I visit around the world, as colorful and delightful as they may be, can often be a little frustrating to a photographer. Usually my time in a village is very limited and every minute eaten up by one of these meetings means that I go home with fewer photographs and video clips. However, here in Togo, the expression of appreciation was so warm and genuine that I found myself more then once moved to tears.

In one village, after a wonderful presentation of traditional music and dance, some of the ladies in the village presented a skit that illustrated how so many of the pregnancies in the village ended up with a still-born child. The expression of grief and sorrow, presented by the actress, as she was handed her lifeless bundle, was so convincing that I suspected that she had had this experience in her real life, possibly more then once. Though I was trying to film the skit, I found myself lowering my camera to brush away a tear. Then the tone of the skit changed. Time had passed. ADRA had come to work in their village! Now, with the education that they were receiving in health, nutrition and sanitation, now, with the new health clinic that ADRA Canada was building in their village, babies were being born in health and vigor! Everyone was happy and celebrating!

Perhaps the visit that left the deepest impression on me was the village of Kpedzi. As our ADRA vehicle pulled to a stop, we were approached by a man wearing a bright ADRA T-shirt. At first I thought he must be a member of the co-operative group that ADRA organizes in the villages that they work in. But then I was told that this was the village chief! Laying aside his traditional regalia, this man had donned a plain white T-shirt to show his appreciation and alliance with the work that ADRA was doing for his people. I was impressed! This changed quickly to amazement as the chief greeted me in fluent English. As Togo is a former colony of France, this language skill, demonstrated by a rural village chief was rare! In my honor, he had prepared a speech in English, of which I was presented a copy as we were leaving. I want to share it here because I believe that it encapsulates the emotion experienced by so many villages around the world in which ADRA and other agencies of community-based development, work.

Here is the speech verbatim.

“I have the honor, the most respectful, to welcoming you, on behalf of the peaceful population of Kpedzi and its surrounding villages. We, the entire populations, are indeed very glad to thank and congratulate your Excellency, for all the marvelous, gigantic and tremendous works carried on within our locality by your industrious Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA).

Through your initiatives and your dynamic impulse, our communities will generate into happy, perfect, peaceful homes, and we are ready, eager and confident to join our efforts for the success of this noble ambition.

Our communities must re-organize to develop themselves and enable the populations to imitate ADRA progressively.

We wish your Excellency to extend our sincere greetings to ADRA wherever you meet them in every color, White, Black, Yellow, Red and Brown. Please! Tell them on our behalf, how good you are, generous you are, lovely you are and so kind you are to all, without discrimination.

Long live Kpedzi, and long live ADRA!”

The speech was punctuated by the villagers themselves, with enthusiastic dancing, singing, clapping, and the beating of African drums. Once again I found myself brushing away a tear. In the future I must not be so intent on “getting the shot”, that I miss the opportunity of hearing the expressions of gratitude.

So what is it that ADRA Canada is doing here in the villages of Togo that was bringing such a show of gratitude? Was this some multi-million dollar program of roads, bridges, hospitals, schools and water systems? Knowing ADRA Canada’s limited budget, and how it specializes in small projects for maximum efficiency, I knew this was not the case. And yet, even though it was a small project, it was being received as a comprehensive, life-changing program in every village that I stopped. “If I was to tell you all of the things that ADRA has done in my village, we would be here all day”, said one lady that I interviewed.

The program, officially called “Rural Health and Income Generating Project” actually targets about twenty key elements of daily life in the village. ADRA workers actually move into the villages that they work in and live among the people that they are instructing. Everyone in the village is invited to attend the “Life-Skills” workshops. Over the course of several months, often right under a mango tree, the people learn for the first time some of the most basic life-principles that we take for granted. How diseases are caught and transmitted, the importance of cleanliness and sanitation, the value of balanced nutrition, how to grow, process, preserve, and cook new foods for healthier lives, and how to have peace and harmony in the family by breaking down traditional gender roles and a more equal sharing of the work, are just a few of the life skills learned in the program.

Participants are encouraged to form a village co-operative where they come together to share their experience one day a week, as they work together on some income generating activity. Here they use their local knowledge or a new skill introduced by the ADRA workers to make simple products that can be sold in the local village markets. Some make baskets, brooms or weave small ropes, others may do tie-dye, still others may make simple medicines such as talcum powder or a vapor rub.

Over the course of a few months, the group fund accumulates and they are able to deposit the money with a micro-credit bank to be used as collateral for small loans for individuals in the group. These small loans are used to accumulate the tools necessary to start their own small income generating activity that effectively launch families out of subsistence poverty into a new life of income and commerce where they are now able purchase small items for their home, expand and grow their small business, and finance their children’s education. Now, instead of sending their twelve-year old daughter to a nearby town to work in virtual bondage for another family, parents will be able to keep her at home and hopefully have enough money to even send her to school!

One of the ladies that I interviewed, helped me understand how the program was helping her. She said, “It is true that before ADRA came, I knew how to make baskets. But back then, I would only make one or two baskets and take them to the market. Because I was so desperate for food for my family for that very day, I would agree to a very small price for my baskets, just so that I could bring home a little food from the market. Now that ADRA has come to help our group, my business skills have improved. Now I am not so desperate. If people are not willing to pay what the baskets are actually worth, I can bring them home and sell them another day. I now have a large inventory of baskets and people are paying the full price!”

What a nice program! Simple, inexpensive and effective!

One morning, as I was filming the activities going on at the rivers edge of one of the villages where ADRA was working, I saw something that I had never seen before in all my years of photographing the work of development. It stood as an emblem that even the instruction of gender equality was getting through and causing positive change. There, on a rock protruding out of the middle of the river, was a husky African man, doing the family laundry! It was working!

One of the stops on our schedule was a village where ADRA had not yet started working in. The idea was to be able to show a contrast between a village where ADRA has had an influence and where it has not. We were running behind schedule and there was some debate as to whether or not we should take the time. It was thought that the differences may be to subtle for the cameras to pick up. But, the promise had been made and the village was waiting for us so we decided to make the stop. I am glad we did! Even if the camera could not pick it up, Todd and I did. The ADRA villages were always swept clean every day and the children seemed happy and healthy. In this village the children were sick and the ground was covered with trash and animal waste. The contrast in smell and sight was distinct and amazing. It made me proud to be affiliated with the work of ADRA and thankful for all that they have been able to do here in Togo. I hope that ADRA Canada will be able to expand their wonderful work here until all of the villages are “ADRA villages”.

When the chief of the village wears an ADRA T-shirt, you know you must be doing something right!

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.