Projects in Togo

Education

Education Volunteers in Togo make a positive difference in the lives of their middle school students. Peace Corps’ Targeting English Education for Change (TEECh) project was developed in collaboration with Togo’s Ministry of National Education to mitigate a significant shortage of qualified English teachers. Volunteers work to strengthen their students’ English skills through innovative, participatory teaching methods in the classroom and through English conversation clubs and other extracurricular activities outside the classroom. They also support their Togolese counterparts (fellow teachers) to improve their teaching skills through coaching, peer observation, and feedback.

On average, girls in Togo achieve less academic success than boys and drop out more often in middle and high school. Education Volunteers work to improve girls’ academic outcomes by incorporating practices that empower both boys and girls and reduce institutional violence in schools. Volunteers facilitate dialogue with school communities, including administrators and parents, on positive masculinity; organize boys' clubs to encourage boys to help with household chores; and coach girls on life skills to increase school attendance.

Agriculture

As environmental changes affect West Africa, food security is a real and growing concern for many Togolese families and communities. Peace Corps Togo created the Promoting Agriculture Education for Sustainability (PAGES) project to support the Ministry of Agriculture’s priority goal—to ensure sufficient, safe, and nutritious food for all. PAGES Volunteers work with local counterparts to provide training and technical assistance to smallholder farmers and community gardeners to adopt sustainable and resilient agricultural techniques. PAGES Volunteers work together with farmers to introduce practices and co-train on a variety of topics such as soil and water conservation, intercropping techniques, small animal husbandry and post-harvest food processing and conservation.

To encourage sustainable farming practices well into the future, Agriculture Volunteers also work in middle schools. Students learn and practice sustainable techniques that they can share with their families and continue implementing for years to come. In addition to classroom teaching, Volunteers work with students and fellow teachers to establish school gardens, tree nurseries for agroforestry, and practice waste sorting and composting.

Health

In Togo, expectant mothers and young children run high risks of mortality and illness. Most maternal and child deaths are preventable, however. In rural communities, access to health facilities, resources, and information is often challenging. Working hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Health, and in support of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), Peace Corps developed its Community Health Education and System Strengthening (CHESS) project. CHESS Volunteers live and work in rural communities, supporting local health centers. Some activities that Volunteers implement with their work partners (health center staff) include improved monitoring and evaluation efforts, project planning, and improved documentation.

Volunteers also support /contribute to pre-natal consultations, infant growth monitoring activities, and behavior change communication to promote healthy behaviors such as birth attendance planning, mother, newborn and child nutrition, vaccination, the use of insecticide-treated bed nets (for malaria prevention), and appropriate care seeking. Through these efforts, Volunteers contribute to real and lasting improvements in the health of the communities they serve.

Cross-sectoral collaboration

Volunteers who live near each other are encouraged to work on cross- sectoral collaboration projects such as school/clinic gardening, tree nursery/tree planting, hygiene and sanitation, malaria prevention, English clubs and camps, mural painting, etc.