Charity: Education Project Togo
Specific Causes: School Building and Support, Community Development and Support, Scholarships
Cause Background: This project originated in Toronto’s Prince of Peace School during World Youth Day 2002 and has evolved as a “partnership” with a number of developing communities in the country of Togo in West Africa. Zenan is especially supportive of the issue of “equal opportunity” for girls and women
Project Highlights: • Emergency relief funds / ongoing support of pastoral work • Shipping containers were sent to Togo with books, food, medical supplies, clothing, tools, computers, sewing machines, bicycles, toys, wheelchairs, etc. • A thriving eight-room school for 350 children was built in the community of Keve. • An 80,000 litre water cistern was constructed in the community of Keve. • Kokou, a 5 year old boy, was brought from Togo to Toronto for life-saving brain surgery and facial reconstruction. A significant contribution was made to the Herbie Fund at the Hospital for Sick Children to assist with medical costs. Mother and child were hosted in Toronto for 8 months and then escorted home to Togo where Kokou is in good health to this day. • A three-room primary school and washroom facilities were constructed in Kokou’s village of Avati. Teacher salaries, textbooks, school supplies and repairs at the school were also funded. • An irrigation project was completed in Kokou’s village and the village water well was repaired. • A demonstration / teaching farm with irrigation was established near the community of Klonou in Western Togo. • A micro-finance project was funded to assist families with loans to improve their annual income. Village residents were trained to manage this project. • Annual scholarships for tuition, lodging, food and learning materials are being provided to 35 – 40 disadvantaged secondary and post-secondary students. • A derelict building on the Keve school site was recently rebuilt and outfitted for: 1) early primary education, 2) community and surrounding area HIV/AIDS education, 3) a community center, and 4) temporary poly-technical school classrooms. • Planning is in the final stages for a poly-technical secondary school in the community of Keve to be built by the Government of Togo. Zenan has provided the “partnership financing” for the purchase of 11 hectares of land for the building site. • Zenan is exploring the possibility of supporting the establishment of a private post-secondary school to complement the government sponsored poly-technical secondary school initiative in the community of Keve.
Links: https://www.canadahelps.org/dn/4790*To make a donation, go to the Select the fund your donation will support section of this web page, and then select the Education Project Togo – Prince of Peace fund.Contact: Bob Kalisz bobkalisz@gmail.com
Zenan’s Role: Zenan has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars of the more than ½ million dollars invested in Education Project Togo. Zenan has stood behind these projects for many years and Zenan’s commitment is ongoing. A photo of Kokou (December 2012) to show the doctors at Toronto’s Sick Kids Hospital the results of their heroic surgical efforts in 2006-2007. All that remains of a growth the size of a hardball under Kokou’s left eye is a well-healed scar purposely positioned during surgery in the area of his smile line where it would become inconspicuous ! The reconstruction of the nose is remarkable.