At Sofie Primary School,
in the coolest region of Togo, five hundred bedkit recipients lined up in a
rainbow of eagerness and robust singing.
Just as the children and their parents anticipated an unimaginable gift
of a bedkit, the SCAW team looked forward to giving children items that meant
so much to their quality of their lives.
A quality control
always takes place before the bedkits are given out. But to hear what kids and their families
think of their gift helps with continuous improvement. Designated as the
interviewer today I met with three fathers and their children, each of whom
gave me insight into their lives as we talked about the bedkits they just
received.
The first little boy,
Alex Guiho started school at eight. His
prospects of staying in school will be as good as what his parents can afford,
hoping as they do he will complete primary school. Although he walks three
kilometers back and forth to school four times a day, today he and his father
have come on a motorcycle taxi in order to be able to take the bedkit mattress
home. And what did that single bed
mattress and mosquito netting mean to Alex.
“I will get to sleep alone!” Instead
of curled up with his three siblings.
Fidele Sogboe didn’t
hesitate to point to the backpack as her favourite item. She would not take it off. Without the
backpack children bring their little things to school in plastic bags. Given
that there is no disposal for these little omnipresent “sachettes” in its own
way, SCAW helps the Togo environment.
Third in her class Fidele claimed she liked studying math best, so is
she good at it. “Non,” she blurted in
the way kids throughout the world are honest.
The last interviewee,
Samuel Klevor carefully printed his name for me. Like every one of the children here, Samuel
has had bouts with malaria including stays in hospital. The necessity of having the individual SCAW
mosquito net for protection can’t be underestimated his father, the Pastor
Klevor, said. Although the pastor
believes strongly in education for all children, the twinkle in his eye bespoke
his pride in Samuel, the youngest, the only boy.
All the positive response does not preclude
some additional items. They all
identified the need for a French dictionary in order to improve the learning of
the country’s official language. Books of any kind were mentioned. Not surprising in town where not a single
book exists.
Team Togo 2016
