Volunteering Experience in Togo

Week 1

During the first week of the project my colleague and I were involved in the project about the reintegration of young adolescents and kids in their families and we had the chance to meet them at the Hälsa Center in Djena.

During our working days we had the chance to accompany the boys to the Institut Français du Togo, where a nice activity regarding the alphabetisation was organised for them. In the following days, mostly as spectators than as active participants we started to enter the routine of the working day of the association.

Some activities were planned as follows: watching a film, computer, literacy lessons and football in the afternoon.

The first activity ended up with the boys having access to a computer where they searched for cartoons or war films. Regarding the literacy part the boys got some books with exercises about how to write numbers and letters properly. In this case I decided to stay with them and asked them about the numbers in french and testing if they also knew them in english. I tried to give a bit of structure to a moment in which the boys were completely left alone.

Furthermore we met for the first time another group of young boys in Agoe. We partly took part in an activity with them, aiming to show them a map of the world and trying to understand which perception and knowledge of the world they had. To this moment followed an awareness session in Ewe about the natural change of the human body due to the growth. After that the guys were playing football using bottles or objects from the floor while they were medicated by our staff if they had little scratches or superficial injuries.

Week 2

During our second week my colleague and I were involved in the project 4B regarding the reintegration of young single mothers in the society.

During these days we got to know the girls of Hollandò beach, who were very welcoming, as well as the boys of Djena. We assisted in different awareness sessions but since it was conducted in the local language we volunteers focused mostly on playing with the girls’ babies, trying to give the mothers more private space to be able to concentrate on the session.

Moreover some days in the afternoon we went to the different locations where the girls are to inform them about the activity of the following day. Otherwise in the afternoon we mostly used to write reports about the activity done during the morning. Also because the staff is gathering information about new girls through a specific form used to ask them specific questions about their situation. On this occasion, one day, when we went to some girls living in the streets of a neighborhood of Lomè, I had the chance to write a couple of pieces of information about every girl interviewed by my teammate.

Week 3

During week 3 we came back to Djena and Agoe. My colleague and I proposed an educational play called “memory” to the children in Djena who had to connect two flashcards, one with a drawing and its equivalent one with two words describing the drawing, one in english and one in french. For example, we created a flashcard drawing a hospital on it and on the other one we wrote “hopital” and “hospital”.

The play was successful and positive perceived mostly by Samira, the girl in charge for the informatic lessons who proposed us to concentrate on the alphabet and trying to find other plays that could be useful to teach it to them since we all got aware of the fact the children’s school level is different from child to child.

We also proposed other games, like a revisited version of the one with the music and the chairs, a more inclusive one. In this play nobody will be eliminated because they can't find a seat, instead the children had to find a way to share the remaining chairs.

In Agoe we witnessed some exchanges and interviews with some of the boys about whom the association wanted to get more information to be then able to talk to their families and start the reintegration process.

Week 4

During week 4 me and my colleague were involved in an activity with the girls of Hollandò.

We made bracelets all together using the method I proposed (knot-pearl-knot) and we had a nice time together. During the activity Samira also held an awareness session with them. The rest of the week was very similar to the previous ones.

Week 5

During week 5 I took part in the project about the vegetable garden. We planted different seeds like the Gombo and took care of watering the soil everyday.

Since this project is not only about the vegetable garden but also about reintegrating young boys, we also visited one part of the city I had never seen before and went to others where I have already been to. There we got information about new boys, through the form I mentioned before. What impressed me in this situation was the loyalty among the boys and the mutual help. The oldest boys were helping the youngest to share their stories and details with us.

On Friday, since this is the day of the food distribution I came back to the association in the afternoon to take part in this activity in which we made little bags containing some food that was given as a gift and then we distributed it to different groups of beneficiaries.

Week 6

During week 6 I came back to Djena. My colleague and I proposed a game called the “hangman” to the kids that came that morning. It was a bit difficult but we managed to do it. The game was designed in order to make them repeat the alphabet and revise simple words.

Moreover we managed to bring a sort of a basket on the beach and made a long line so one after the other, the children and us, had the possibility to shoot the ball in the basket. This was a way to change activity, since the children are always playing football, which they love, but they really enjoyed this different moment.

There were a lot of children coming and joining the line, it was a successful activity.

Furthermore we participated for the first time in the so called “ecole mobile” which consists of bringing a box of connected blackboards on which there are different topics. Once at the place the blackboards come out of the box and the children go around them, choosing the topic they want to learn that day. We volunteers helped them to get more deeply in the theme.

Week 7

During week 7 we came back to the girls of Hollandò and Hotel la paix. Here one morning we had to wait more than one hour because the girls we wanted to make an activity with were being visited by the doctor.

For that day my colleague and I had taken part in the preparation of the awareness session our team leaders wanted to carry out. We had prepared a drawing and table about the menstrual cycle.

But when they finally came back we attended an interesting session led by a girl from an association which produces pads, which are reusable thanks to the fact that they are covered with the typical african fabrics.

The girl showed them how to put it on and told us that it is possible to reuse them for two years.

Moreover during the week we went to the “Grand Marchè” to buy diapers, biscuits and powdered milk and we brought it to the girls of Hollandò and their babies.

Week 8

Week 8 was free for us volunteers because the plans of the association changed. But we went to Djena to say goodbye to the children, joining them for the last informatic lesson and playing basketball and football with them for the last time.

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