We now have a really nice long jump at the school.
The project for the new primary school in Naworo is also progressing well. The goal is to have the walls and roof erected for the start of the school year in September.
We are not with you at the end of the year, but as promised, we will be working in 2021 on the exterior renovation of the 2 main buildings ... Sagbadaï Primary School ...
Thank you and congratulations to the teachers of the Sagbadaï primary school for your efforts for your 350 students. You know better than anyone that education is the basis of human development!
Lybama High School
This high school is located in a district north of Sokodé, near the Akamadé dispensary, and 2 kilometers from Bouba ...
A single building of 3 solid classrooms, and 2 "temporary" wooden buildings, covered with sheet metal, with 5 classrooms to house the 600 high school students in total (including Sherifa, Taïrou's daughter, and several former college students from Sagbadaï). Imagine: the second A4 class accommodates 112 pupils!
At the start of 2020, we launched some emergency work to erect half-walls and cement the floors of the most dilapidated classrooms. We will complete this work in 2021, in order to consolidate all the buildings.
Courage to the Management and to the super-motivated teachers, we will not forget you!
A little local geography ...
Some of you have asked for some geographical clarification on our area of intervention, between Sokodé where we are staying and the village of Sagbadaï, where we are carrying out a large part of our projects.
Herewith therefore 3 extracts from Google Earth with the benchmarks of our main interventions, in yellow:
- Top right, the territory between Sokodé and Sagbadaï, until Bouzalo (about twenty kms between Bouba and Bouzalo)
- Top left, the heart of the village of Sagbadaï (about 3 kms between the primary school and the Tchoré school
- Bottom, Sokodé and its suburbs, from Chez Bouba to the Tchakpaladé school (about 5 kms)
November 12, 2019 - November 12, 2020 ...
A year ago to the day, we began our stay in Togo with our faithful friend Corneille, who has been hosting us for a dozen years "Chez Bouba".
Confined to Brittany, we cannot join our friends from Sokodé and Sagbadaï this year: Taïrou, Tchedré, Vincent, the Bouba team and the others. Even if the virus seems much less active in sunny Africa, it would not have been reasonable to travel in these conditions ...
Never mind, we are by heart and mind with them and we will make you live virtually for 3 weeks the progress of our projects in Togo.
Friends and loyal supporters of SPESS, stay tuned, we still need you, there is no shortage of projects !!
Unfortunately our trip to Togo this year was canceled for reasons we know. We will reassess the situation in 4 or 5 months to see if leaving is possible.
Despite this disappointment, we continue to work on the projects thanks to Whatsapp and the projects are progressing well. The following is a recap of our actions this year and our plans for next year.
2020 projects
1. Primary of Nawaro. The foundations are done and they are putting up the walls. The goal is to open the building for the school entrance September 2021
2. Kindergarten for Sagbadai finished
3. Dispensary. The concrete bins are made to allow sanitary waste to be properly stored.
4. The building for the teachers of the college has started and will be completed in a few weeks.
5 The 4 scholarship holders are working well and we will have 6 in 2021.
6. We delivered the tables and benches to the college in Bouzalo. We also installed the doors.
7. We created the football field with real goals and nets.
8. We have considerably reinforced the Lybama Lycée buildings and put cement on the floor in 4 classrooms.
9. Cashew trees continue to grow and we had our first harvest this year. It was not a big harvest but it is a start.
10. The women's association has had great success with their soap making.
The photos are the dispensary and primary of Naworo
2021 projects
1. Finish the walls and roof for the September 2021. Children can use Naworo primary school
2. Collège Bouzalo, painting and final finishing of the building.
3. Primary Sagbadai. Painting and reinforcement of the two old buildings.
4. Lybama High School. Improve existing buildings.
5. Health: Improve the dispensary in Sagbadai and help the dispensary and CHR in Sokodé.
6. Association of women. Progress with this project and increase the radius of action.
7. Add other sports to the soccer field. High and long jump, shot put, 100m track, etc.
8. Progress with the cashew farm.
9. Bring electricity from the grid to the community center and dispensary.
10 Increase highschool students to 6
Golf of Carantec: big success of the SPESS golf competition ...
Congratulations to the 81 golfers for their sporting participation and their generous donations to SPESS during this classic late-summer competition.
A big thank you also to the sports association and to the "Friends of the Birdie" for the impeccable organization.
The winners were celebrated with dignity during the award ceremony in front of a large crowd, and after a festive buffet at finished this beautiful day!
See you next year...
Togo in confinement, but life goes on (in slow motion) ...
One month already since our last article, and life has changed, in France as in Togo!
Sanitary containment measures have been in place in Togo for a few days: needless to say that the life of our Togolese friends, villagers of Sagbadaï or city dwellers of Sokodé, is seriously disturbed. Not easy and even impossible to respect the rules of confinement and "social distancing" when it is imperative to move to work in the field or sell on the markets, to earn enough to eat, to fetch water ...
Our entrepreneur friends on site are on the verge of financial suffocation, no more gathering, bars and restaurants closed, schools, colleges and high schools closed, small trades stopped ...
Very few victims for the moment in Togo, but the psychosis is raging, fueled by the lack of information or communication. We hope our friends stay in good shape and wish them courage and patience.
While waiting for better days, attached some photos received recently:
- Esther is looking much better ...
- Construction of the Lybama high school walls in progress
- Success for soap making by the new Sagbadaï Women's Association
- First official soccer match on the new field!
Lybée Lybama, the project is launched ...
It is at this high school (LYcée BAMAbodolo) in Sokodé that the majority of middle school students from Sagbadaï (who have successfully completed the BEPC, and who can afford it ...) complete their secondary education and prepare for the bac.
600 students work there in conditions at the limit of the bearable for the majority of them, housed under hangars, in the dust and crowded (a class of 112 students!).
Lots of merit also for the teaching staff and the parents of students, who are fighting to improve the environment, without state assistance ...
For a few days, the sand has been delivered and the ground cementing works have started, thanks to the budget allocated by SPESS. A new start for this school, and good news for the students!
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Cheque to be sent to:
SPESS
c/o Nigel Page-Jones
62 Rue du Port
29250 St Pol de Leon
S.P.E.S.S.
The SPESS was founded in 2008 in Brittany as a non profit making association to support the disadvantaged and the poor in Togo.
The original idea was to develop a farm and traditional cultures in the small village of Sagbadaï, located 300 kilometers north of the capital Lome in the province of Sokode.
We then focused more on the questions of education and health. In 2012 we started the project of building a solid school building (for primary classes) in order to allow children to be educated in decent conditions. In 2014, we built the college buildings to enable a better continuity between primary and secondary education as many primary-schooled children drop out due to a lack of facilities and finance.
Health is also a main priority and it is imperative to improve the existing local infrastructure to allow access to care for the poor. One of our main projects is to renovate the old and dilapidated dispensary in Sagabadaï. They have no running water, no electricity and no real equipment.
