About us

About Us

ecoliers-tabalo

Who are we

A sustainable associative organization and loyal partners and donors ...

The SPESS Association has been working for a dozen years in contact with the populations of the village of Sagbadaï, the surrounding villages, and the town of Sokodé. The Association office is in regular contact with our sister association SPESS Togo and its office of 3 people, whose dedication is to be underlined. Annual trips are organized from France to animate and provide support to local players.
An experienced technician provides on-site advice and support for building renovations and constructions. All construction work is entrusted to local companies ...

Creation in 2008, objective: creation of a farm in Togo ...

After a chance meeting with a Togolese teacher traveling to France, the decision was taken by the founding members of SPESS to financially support the project to create a breeding farm, proposed by this person, in order to improve the animal protein intake for the population. It is with this initial objective that the association was created in 2008: followed the acquisition of land, the construction of a house and farm buildings, the purchase of small livestock, the support initial and methodological support were funded from 2009 to 2014.
Several years were needed before the project came to fruition, stabilizing the operation of the farm, and integrating local technical and cultural constraints ...
Two other community farm experiments have been set up since:

  • A farm of market gardening and traditional crops (1 hectare), rented.
  • A community farm of cashew plantations (5 hectares), for later harvest (cashew nuts). Creation 2017

Priorities education, health, and community life ...

  • From 2011, after the first on-site visits and in the face of the poor school facilities in the village, the need to diversify the Association's actions became clear: the construction of a three class building was launched to reinforce the 6 existing classes of the primary school of Sagbadaï, insufficient to accommodate the 350 young schoolchildren. Commissioned in 2014, the building accommodated the small classes and the kindergarten.
  • In 2014, the decision was taken and implemented, in partnership with an American Association, Peacecorps, to launch the construction of a new 4-class building to replace the 3 miserable straw huts of the existing college. Commissioned at the start of the 2014/2015 school year and after a rapid construction, the number of college students quickly multiplied by 3 and then by 5 over the following 2 years! Fantastic success and demonstration of the relevance of adapting the priorities of the Association to emergencies ...
  • From 2016 and 2017, the construction of a new 2-class building for the small primary school of Tabalo, located about forty kilometers north-west of Sagbadaï. Then the construction of a new building of 4 classes for the college of Bouzalo, a neighboring village, to replace the 4 existing straw huts, this in financial partnership with the association of parents of pupils.
  • In 2018, the Association launched some repair work to strengthen the infrastructure of Lybama high school in Sokodé, construction of exterior partitions and cement on the ground. The 350 high school students in fact share 3 permanent classes and 4 temporary classes: The roofs of the 2 old buildings of the primary school in Sagbadaï have been completely redone. No more rain in the school!
  • 2019 will mark the construction and inauguration of a new 2-class building for the Sagbadaï kindergarten, to the great satisfaction of the parents of students, teachers and around 40 toddlers.
  • Construction began in 2020 on a 3-class building at the primary school in Naworo, a village located a dozen kilometers south-east of Sokodé, again to replace 3 miserable huts. The building has been in use since the start of the 2021/2022 school year, and will be completely finished (floors and paintings) at the very beginning of 2022.

Community Center and Sports Field

A Community Center for the population, and a sports ground for young people ...

No common and public infrastructure existed in the village of Sagbadai for the villagers.

  • The decision was taken in 2016 to build a new building of 100 square meters in the heart of the village to promote cultural and educational activities: the building was finished in 2017 and hosts a large meeting room with video and TV, a library , and a computer room equipped with 2 computers. A generator set provides autonomy in electricity, replaced in 2021 by the arrival of electricity, after long years of waiting!
  • A sports field was also being prepared in 2019, in financial partnership with a group of students from the University of Brest: a field up to standards, solid goals, and even a long jump track ...


Healthcare

Priority to health ...

  • The exemplary dedication of nurses, midwives and health personnel in Togo cannot mask the structural weakness of healthcare equipment and the cruel lack of financial means, doctors and specialists.
    The Sagbadaï dispensary, a central point of care for the 650 inhabitants of the village of Sagbadaï and the 2,000 inhabitants of the canton, is an old building that our Association renovated in 2016/2017: new delivery room, new exterior paintings, renovation of the furniture, construction of showers for patients and caregivers, renovation of storage and the water circuit, installation of solar panels and basic lighting, management of medical waste, small medical equipment.
  • Regular contacts are also established with the CHR of Sokodé, in particular on the aspects of undernutrition of babies, and with one of the dispensaries of Sokodé. Numerous donations of medicines and glasses, clothes for babies, small medical equipment are made each year.
  • Every year since 2017, the Association has promoted compulsory vaccination campaigns for babies among mothers: annual distribution of "I am vaccinated, I am protected" t-shirts in the 2 dispensaries of Sagbadaï and Sokodé ...


The area where we work on our projects

Sagbadaï is the place where everything started. It is a small village located about 205 miles (~330km) from Lomé, the capital of Togo. The nearest important city is Sokodé at about 6.5 miles (~10km). Considered the second largest city in the country, with a population of around 118,852; it is located in the center of the country, halfway between the tropical climate of the seaside and the dry climate of the Sahel. About 600 people live in Sagbadaï and 2000 in the surrounding district.

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