Street Children From Togo

For the first time an African is at the head of the International Labor Organization (ILO). Former Prime Minister of Togo Gilbert F. Houngbo becomes the new head of ILO. His term of office will last five years. He replaces British Guy Ryder. Founded in 1919, the ILO is part of the United Nations family. It adopts and monitors conventions to create a better and decent working environment. (Reutlinger Nachrichten)

‘Reutlinger Nachrichten’ says that the aid-organisation ‘Humedica’ now examined 7 of Togo’s 13 prisons. While you can’t expect hygiene standards to be as high as in for example US-prisons, it still is a bad thing they found convicts with blood pressure, diabetes, bronchitis, worm attack, diseases related to bad hygiene and that malaria even was a bigger issue than Corona. People usually are forced to sit while sleeping – the cells are overcrowded – and hundreds of convicts share one toilet and one shower. Some convicts don’t even get soap or a toothbrush provided by the prison and instead depend on aid-organisations like ‘Humedica’ to provide them. Even worse is that these 7 prisons ‘Humedica’ examined even denied a doctor to those who couldn’t afford paying the treatment. Some may say “Well, these convicts had it coming! After all they committed a crime!” However you should keep in mind that this is one of the poorest countries in the world where some may steal food, because otherwise they and their families would starve and where you can get imprisoned just for stealing food. Also in the EU and the USA some people even got famous for having been in prison before it turned out they were innocent all along. So why should Togo be any different?

‘Suedwestpresse’ says that at least three Togolese opposition candidates in the presidential election have said the vote was marred by fraud.
Provisional results from the presidential election in Togo indicate that the incumbent, Faure Gnassingbé, will secure a fourth term in power.
The electoral commission cited provisional results as showing that Mr Gnassingbé had received 72% of the vote, compared with about 18% for the best-placed opposition candidate, Agbéyomé Kodjo.
Mr Kodjo had earlier said the vote was marred by fraud, and that he considered himself the winner.
This also lead to conflicts and uncertainty among the population. While some consider this one as the rightful leader others consider that one as the rightful leader and neither tolerates the opposite opinion. Some accept the result of these elections while others don’t.

>“Domradio” says that this Wednesday in Togo there have been demonstrations against president Faure Gnassingbe who still refuses to step down. Reason is not only that he refuses to allow reforms, but also that his dynasty started about half a century ago. People accuse Gnassingbe of spending only 1/3 of the taxes he promised would be given to the health system actually to that system. At least that’s their explanation as to why so many citizens of Togo can’t afford even the most basic medical treatment. Also it seems to people that he doesn’t care about the 40% of all citizens who can’t even read or about the 58% of all citizens who have less than 1 $ per day to spend.
Last but not least police officers have been arresting, wounding and even killing participants of these demonstrations and it is widely believed they did so on orders from Faure Gnassingbe.
>“Agrarheute” says that to improve the situation of countries where starvation still is a big deal – for example Congo or Madagascar – and also to find a way to feed the increasing world population, the “Gregor Mendel Stiftung” in Bonn (North-Rhine Westphalia /Germany) now started a project to find a way that will make plant-growing more effective – be it by developing new sorts of food plants or by growing the plants we already have more effectively.
I guess you know who the monk and botanic Gregor Mendel was.

Okay! Seeing how this week Donald Trump won the Elections this definitely did not make headlines, but still: As she wants to become a doctor and work in a developing country according to the newspaper “Halterner Zeitung” a girl from a high school in Haltern am See (North-Rhine Westphalia /Germany) decided to get some hands-on training in a kindergarden in Lavenderia in Togo.
This week she returned and told the newspaper the following things about Togo:
>In Togo people generally are less-reserved than in average parts of Germany. For example most people she med immediately wanted to get to know her, start a conversation with her, didn’t mind that she neither spoke nor understood this area’s dialect and already after the first conversation said things like “I like you!” or “I like you very much!”
>Things don’t go as hygienic as in Germany. For example drinks were sold in some plastic bags and if you spilled some juice while getting the liquidity from the bag into a glass or bottle, that was just a common thing to happen. Also even public places like this kindergarden didn’t have running water taps.
>Even in the capital electric lights weren’t taken for granted. If she wanted to read at night, she was to use a torch light.
>Due to not many men being qualified enough for as well as interested into this job even in the capital city people just got away with breaking even heavy traffic regulations.
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Re-upload: Associations that help street children from this LDC are:
>UNICEF (www.unicef.org)
>Aid For Africa (www.aidforafrica.org)
>UNHCR (www.unhcr.org)