04.04.2021 Progress with the Kekeli project for girls Some good news at Easter: We have come very far with our girls’ project! The girls' meeting place, the girls' house, which we renovated, is finished; the girls (and also boys from the village) have taken over the final cleaning in good spirits and with joy. The association Apotheker Helfen (Pharmacists Help), which has already subsidized the mobile hand washing stations, is getting involved in our girls' project (contraceptives). With the help of two other external donors, a sanitary building for girls (toilets and showers) will be built between the middle and high school! After all, we have water in Klologo... The excavation has already begun. From now on we use a modern latrine-emptying-system, which turns the solids into fertilizer. The Frank Walder company has agreed to donate washable sanitary pads for the women and girls in Klologo who have no hygiene products. Material for this purpose was donated by the Hof company Mündel. Due to the reports in the local press about our girls' project, some women in Bad Steben agreed to sew washable sanitary pads - they have already sown 600 of them! Another success is the official promise of funding for the construction of a latrine with 12 toilets and washbasins at the elementary school; construction can now begin. So some things now got rolling after much preliminary work, and we are of course happy about these successes, which benefit the people in Klologo! March 21: International Day against Racism From the International Days that are on the calendar, you can see the state of the society we live in: Must there be an International Day Against Racism? Apparently so. Since 1966, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination has been observed annually on March 21. The international days, years and decades are adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on the proposal of Member States. They commemorate achievements of the international community, provide an occasion for reflection on global problems, draw attention to important issues for the future, and motivate people to become more involved. Like March 22, International Water Day. Water - a problem issue, a future issue. Will there still be enough for everyone at some point? Who has access to clean water? Who controls access? It makes you think, but you can also get involved and do something concrete: be careful with water, donate money for well drilling projects in the global south... With the Day Against Racism, it's not so easy. What can and should we do? Racism, like any kind of discrimination, is kept alive and solidified in language. So the commandment to us here is to listen carefully to how our fellow human beings talk and to intervene immediately when racist remarks are made. Often it is only a word, often meant "jokingly", so to speak - but: There is no joking about this topic! If we all make ourselves strong in this sense, not avoiding confrontations, we can contribute to the fact that racial discrimination slowly decreases. 28.03.2021 Donation jerseys 1. FFC Hof Kekeli Togo e.V. and the girls from Klologo would like to thank Katja Drechsel and 1. FFC HOF. Akpe Kaka! 20.03.2021 Rapport „Blickpunkt“ - Hofer Projekt hilft Mädchen in Togo“ 20.03.2021 Rapport „Wir im Frankenwald“ - Ein Projekt für die Mädchen 13.03.2021 The girls house: to be inaugurated soon! Klologo. Kekeli's "girls' project", a project for the protection and promotion of young girls in Klologo, aims to create an environment where adolescent girls in the village are protected from pregnancy and early marriage, where their rights are respected and where their full development is guaranteed. This will enable them to complete their schooling and learn a profession suited to their abilities, thus paving the way out of poverty. Empowerment of girls, building their self- confidence, is another important priority. A local committee takes on the task of supporting the girls on a voluntary basis; an appropriate meeting place, the girls' house, has been renovated thanks to a targeted individual donation and will soon be inaugurated! The girls (and boys too) happily helped with the final cleaning of the meeting and training place. The Village Chief made the house available; it was very dilapidated - now it has become a jewel, as the pictures show. 13.03.2021 Especially for girls Klologo. We can start! The contract has been signed (photo), nothing stands in the way of the start of construction of the sanitary building with six toilet cabins and showers for girls only in the schoolyard between the middle and high school. The sanitary building for girls (and their teachers) is part of the holistic Kekeli Girls Project. In sub-Saharan Africa, there is a lack of toilets for everyone, but especially toilets specifically for women. Women and girls are disadvantaged because of their menstruation. Menstruation is associated with shame and taboo; menstrual blood is considered unclean; if a woman leaves menstrual blood in the open, in a field for example, the field is considered "contaminated" and a poor harvest is feared! This discrimination is countered by a sanitary building especially for girls / women; it offers the girls and women security, protection of privacy and discretion. There is no gender-segregated toilet/latrine in Klologo so far. In the sanitary building, girls can perform their menstrual hygiene during their period without the usual shame and also otherwise be undisturbed and without male gazes among their peers. The village has water since Kekeli Togo installed two deep bore wells in the fall of 2019. More wells are planned, including at the health center. 08.03.2021 Women's Day - March 8, 2021 Wir wünschen allen Frauen einen besonders schönen und freudigen Tag! Hoffentlich bekommen alle die Anerkennung, den Respekt, die Liebe und die Achtung, die ihnen zusteht! 08.03.2021 International Women’s Day Which century are we living in? March 8 is International Women’s Day. This year’s motto is: Choose to challenge. That means: speak up against discrimination, inequality, gender gaps. (We at Kekeli Togo are addressing the gender issue with our young girls project.) There is still a lot of inequality out there: On average, women have just three-quarters of the legal rights afforded to men, we read in the World Bank’s “Women, Business and the Law” Report that analyzes 190 nations in terms of gender discrimination in eight specific sectors of a woman’s life: Mobility, Workplace, Pay, Marriage, Parenthood, Entrepreneurship, Assets and Pension. Equal rights – still a long way to go Three quarters on average! In the list of the 190 nations, the lowest score is a shocking 26.3 out of 100 points! Which means in some countries, women have practically no rights… (That Togo scores a proud 84.4 points, we have already reported.) The questionnaire used for the report highlights the fact that there must still be countries where by law married women have to obey their husbands, cannot get a divorce same as a man, cannot open a bank account or register a business, where there is no law against domestic violence, where a woman cannot sign a contract same as a man, where a woman cannot apply for a passport same as a man, where there is no law against sexual harassment at the workplace… Sad reading really, and one wonders which century we are living in. ( https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35094 ) 08.03.2021 Equality- - a human right On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, a quote from Mari Elka Pangestu, World Bank Managing Director of Development Policy and Partnerships. She said in February 2021: „Gender equality is a fundamental human right. More important, it can boost economic growth and improve development outcomes. There has never been a more important time to ensure women’s economic empowerment.“ World Bank, World Bank, February 2021 08.03.2021 The Kekeli Togo Girls Project Our "Girls Project", a project for the protection and promotion of girls in Klologo, aims to create an environment where adolescent girls in the village are protected from early pregnancy and early marriage, where their rights are respected, and their full development is guaranteed. This enables them to complete their schooling and learn a trade suited to their abilities, opening the way out of poverty. A local committee takes over the support of the girls on a voluntary basis; a suitable meeting place, the girls' house, is being renovated with the help of an earmarked individual donation; a medically trained contact person for the girls is currently being trained at the expense of the association; here as well as there, donations in kind of contraceptives, condoms, washable sanitary napkins are being sought. read more 01.03.2021 Women's rights reforms are bearing fruit in Togo Lomé. Togo is the first country in the West African Monetary and Economic Union area and the 7th in sub-Saharan Africa to promote women in business and in positions of public responsibility; in West Africa, it is second only to Cape Verde Island. The information comes from the World Bank, which has just released the 2021 edition of its report "Women, Business and Law 2021", a document that analyzes the laws and reforms adopted by the 190 countries surveyed, in relation to the elimination of gender-based discrimination and the promotion of women. With a total of 84.4 points, Togo ranks 66 th in the overall list, and 7th in the Top 10 in sub-Saharan Africa, ahead of Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire and Mozambique. (Germany is in thirteenth place, France in fourth.) The country is visibly reaping the laurels of the reforms that have been undertaken to remove obstacles to women's access to land, and to promote their entrepreneurial sense through the measure that reserves 25% of public procurement contracts for young and female entrepreneurs. Public policies that, in the opinion of experts, have borne fruit. In 2020, women formalized 3426 new businesses, or 27% of the new entities created, in line with the vision of the Togolese authorities for 2022, to have 28% of women business owners and 44% of women benefiting from access to credit. Togo's progress in the promotion of women has also been marked by the unprecedented rise of women in power, particularly in the National Assembly, for which they are the perch, the Prime Minister's Office and the General Secretariat of the Presidency, among others. With this performance, the country surpasses the Seychelles (76.3 points), which used to sit with the island at the top of the best African rankings; and by far, its West African neighbors, notably Benin and Ghana. It should be noted that while the top trio of the ranking consists of Mauritius, South Africa and Zimbabwe, it is countries such as Eswatini, Guinea Bissau and Sudan that are jostling for the bottom of the ranking. (Togofirst, February 26, 2021) 23.01.2021 Did you know how big Africa is? Take a look at any map, and it’s clear that the African continent is a big place. However, despite the common perception that Africa is a large landmass, it’s still one that is vastly underestimated by most casual map viewers. The reason for this is that the familiar Mercator   map   projection tends to distort our geographical view of the world in a crucial way — one that often leads to misconceptions about the relative sizes of both countries and continents. This infographic comes from Kai   Krause and it shows the true size of Africa, as revealed by the borders of the countries that can fit within the continent’s shape. (Quoted from www.visualcapitalist.com) 20.02.2021 Textile masks for Klologo Münchberg. Kekeli Togo recently received joyful news: Carolin Kittel, the managing director of the Münchberg fashion company Frank Walder, offered our association 50,000 textile mouth and nose masks. As a donation for the people in Klologo. "In Germany, textile masks are largely obsolete due to the regulation of FFP2 masks in stores, trains and buses, etc.. In Africa, they provide valuable services to contain the pandemic," says Michel Kossih Frenzel-Assih, chairman of the association. "We are very grateful for this spontaneous donation!" The elaborately crafted masks made of different patterned fabrics, packed in cardboard boxes, are sent to Togo in stages: in a consolidated cargo container; the "journey" takes five weeks. In the photo in the hall in Münchberg, by the boxes with the masks, from left: Carmen Steinhäußer and Michel Kossih Frenzel-Assih from Kekeli Togo e. V. as well as three employees of the Frank Walder company. (www.frankwalder.com) 13.02.2021 The Kekeli Girls' House In winter, as reported, we launched a "girls" project in Klologo with the aim of reducing the high number of school dropouts due to early pregnancy through education, and through girl empowerment to give girls the self- confidence to pay attention to and seize their opportunities. Early pregnancy closes off girls' educational pathways and ultimately their pathway to the workforce. We want to give the girls the opportunity to decide for themselves to break out of the vicious circle - girl growing up in poverty - early pregnancy - no job - wife/mother living in poverty. In Klologo, a team of seven volunteers was immediately formed to take matters into their own hands as the Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Girls (Comité pour la Protection et Promotion des Jeunes Filles, CPPJF). read more 13.02.2021 There is already a song... "Dear sisters, get up. It's time to get ready! Dear brothers! Get up...!" These are the lyrics of the hymn that the girls of Klologo have invented as their song, their call and self-motivation to go along with the new path that Kekeli Togo is showing them with the Girls' Project. This is how it is planned: The Committee for the Protection and Promotion of Girls in Klologo, which was founded locally in December, will take over the training and education and accompany the girls as mentors until they finish school. The girls are also trained in self-confidence and personality development. The program is rounded off by leisure activities. The aim is to solve the problem of the many school dropouts due to early pregnancy in the long term. While waiting for the completion of the girls' house as a meeting place and training building (see report on the girls' house), the members of the committee have already committed the girls to the new path and encouraged them to participate actively. This can only go well, one thinks at the sight of the singing girls. read more 10.02.2021 The yellow toolbox has arrived! Klologo. Kodjovi Gati, the 19-year-old apprentice carpenter for whom our association pays the training, was overjoyed when the Chef du Village, the Honorable Togbui Gati IV, presented him with the yellow toolbox, complete and for the most part newly stocked - the donation of a member of our association. (So that after transport the tools can all be properly sorted, a photo arrived with the package in Klologo). To express the great joy and especially the heartfelt thanks, the young man and his father called our association president right on the evening of the handover. "This toolbox is practically a whole workshop," said the father. And joked, "My son is now better equipped than his apprentice master." In gratitude, the budding carpenter plans to be extra diligent in his apprenticeship and graduate very well; he will donate his first carpentered workpiece to a Kekeli Togo project in Klologo. 05.02.2021 Hunger may kill more people than COVID- 19 “The number of chronically hungry people increased by an estimated 130 million last year, to more than 800 million – about eight times the total number of COVID-19 cases to date. […] For the most vulnerable people, the pandemic’s secondary effects – not the coronavirus itself – will cause the most damage. And the hunger pandemic triggered by COVID-19 threatens to be the biggest killer,” one reads on a World Bank blog dated February 2. How to “digest” such horrible news? With empathy. Feel, or imagine to feel how hunger hurts, knowing how good we have it. And then take action. There are so many ways we can donate – the internet shows numerous organizations that collect money to fight hunger worldwide, reliable organizations with little or no overhead. It will feel good! In the ideal case, we could combine our traditional springtime “get-slim-for- summer” efforts with our “help-fight-global-hunger” effort and donate what we save at the food store. If everyone did this, maybe even as a group to motivate each other even better, just for one spring – what might we not achieve? 22.01.2021 The number of cases of coronavirus contamination is rising in Togo. The country currently has more than 4300 confirmed cases. On Sunday, January 17, 2021, about 30 new confirmed cases were recorded bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 4302. These 30 newly infected persons, whose ages range from 0 to 80 years, were among the 801 people tested the previous day. On January 16, the country fortunately recorded twelve recoveries bringing the total number of patients cured of COVID-19 to 3,775. The number of deaths remains unchanged at 73. The number of active cases is 454. A total of 193,879 laboratory tests have been performed throughout the country. IciLomé, January 18, 2021 16.01.2021 It's been one year... A very special day was 16 January 2020 in Klologo, the village that is the focus of our projects: on this day, the two wells built by the Kekeli Togo Association were inaugurated. A small delegation of the association travelled to Togo with the chairman to be present at the celebration. There was much praise and thanks in the speeches for the tireless work of our association. After all, we had set up two deep bore wells and a latrine in less than ten months. The two wells, with a network of pipes and nine water points, supply five of the six districts, including the school and the kindergarten. Two more wells have to be built, primarily one at the health centre and the other in a part of the village that has not been directly supplied with fresh water so far. We are in contact with a donor for the well at the dispensary - we hope we can soon give the head of the dispensary the good news that the well, which is urgently needed for hygiene reasons, will be built! 1 3.01.2021 Foreigners seduced by local opportunities On January 11, 2021, the official website of the Togolese Republic informs that 2,891 companies were created by foreigners in 2020. This is a little more than the previous year, despite the complicated economic and sanitary conditions. Regarding nationalities, there are Chinese, Guineans, Beninese, Nigerians. According to data provided by the Center for Business Formalities (CFE), most of these companies are located in the Maritime region. This is not surprising. This is where much of the economic activity is concentrated. www.republicoftogo.com/ 13.01.2021 Did you know... ... that there is cotton in Togo? Olam Internaitonal, a big agricultural group, recently acquired 51 percent of the national cotton company. In addition to cotton, Togo also grows coffee, cocoa and oil fruits for export. Sweet potatoes, cassava, maize, millet and sorghum, rice, beans, peanuts, sugar cane and a number of other crops and fruit plants are grown for domestic consumption. According to FAO (UN Food & Agriculture Organization) statistics, sweet potatoes, cocoa beans, maize and cassava are the main agricultural products. Togo is a member of COPAL - Cocoa Producers' Alliance and the Africa Rice Center. (source: liportal) 1 1.01.2021 Tribalism is gaining ground in Togo "May our attachment to national cohesion remain the guiding thread that will enable us to resolutely pursue our march towards shared prosperity in 2021," said Faure Gnassingbé in his New Year message to the people of Togo. Indeed, for several years now, the assertion of " national cohesion " has been very present in the official speeches of politicians. And with good reason, as everyone is aware that a divisive element is gaining more and more ground: identity- based withdrawal. This reflex is at the root of the compartmentalization of populations and of conflicts. But very few people dare to approach the subject clearly. Let's say it clearly. Tribalism is one of the many evils undermining Togo. The rupture is increasingly palpable within communities, marked by poverty, intolerance, fear of difference, and the desire to conquer and conserve power. The lack of democracy at the grassroots level is developing identity- based divisions, mainly due to the feelings of injustice and frustration that maintain these divisions. The nation in danger... Today, tribalism is an irrefutable reality. In Togo, as in the majority of certain African countries, the sixty years of independence, broken down into thirty years of single-party reign and thirty years of random democratization, have not caused the phenomenon to regress one iota. Like a mutant virus, it has even regained a certain youth by infiltrating social networks. The community spirit advocated by Faure Gnassingbé at the price of initiatives for reconciliation has never been so in danger. Grassroots communities have been shaken, the public administration infected, institutions decried and the army accused. It is therefore becoming urgent to build a common ideal of peace between the different groups. The expression of an assumed living together, which would result in the strengthening of a collective spirit and the promotion of excellence at the expense of a certain "fraternity based on our origins," according to one observer. Source: Fraternité No.386 of January 6, 2021 07.01.2021 A medical representative for Klologo On December 2, 2020, her training began: Rosaline Afi Amedome, an 18-year-old from Klologo, is going to a top- class state institute to train as a medical assistant. Kekeli Togo e.V. is covering the costs of the three-year diploma course. "We see this as an investment in our girls' project," says Michel Frenzel-Assih, chairman of the association. With the planned girls' project - scheduled to start this spring - Kekeli Togo wants to counteract the high number of early pregnancies in the global South; many teenage girls leave school prematurely because they are pregnant. The path to a professional life - and thus out of the poverty trap - is thus blocked for them. read more 01.01.2021 Happy New Year We from Kekeli Togo e.V. wish you a year of healing, health and joy, also in the name of the inhabitants of Klologo, the village we serve with our projects. Let us hope that values experienced as important in the pandemic, such as solidarity and cohesion, can be rescued into the "new normal". Together we can accomplish so much! We will continue to work hard to realize even more projects. We are happy if you accompany us in this process. And we are sincerely grateful for every donation that brings us closer to our goals. Our website provides information about our work and all projects: www.association- kekeli-togo.com . 01.01.2021 Tomorrow the world will not be a different one Claudia Mäder writes about New Year in Corona times in the NZZ on 12/31/2020: "[...] The waves that everyone sees clearly in front of them at the moment do not necessarily define the direction in which things will move in the medium or longer term. Just because everything seems to be rolling over in a brief moment does not mean that all structures will be permanently transformed and that later "nothing will be the same as before". And certainly epidemics don't have the power to upend everything underneath - that can be said from a historical perspective insofar as none of these diseases "epochalized" in the recent past and gave their name to an era." Kekeli Microfinance: a balance sheet worth seeing 01.01.2021 148 villagers have received micro-financial aid from our association so far, as Cobby Adjanor, who manages the micro-financial aid fund for Kekeli, reports. With the equivalent of EUR 60 as interest-free initial financing, the people in Klologo can build up their own livelihoods. They are advised in advance and now trained - because they are now small entrepreneurs. On 20 December, for example, the first training courses in management and organisation were held for 30 participants. Further courses will follow between the end of December and mid-January. With this project, Kekeli Togo is supporting the path out of poverty by helping people to help themselves. The fund started with a capital of 3,000,000 F CFA, which is equivalent to 4,500 EUR. The beneficiaries pay a one-time, low membership fee; the interest-free start- up aid is repayable in instalments after three to six months. In this way, the fund pot remains filled in the long run, and more people benefit from the support. It is in line with the principle that charitable funds are best invested when local people can use them as they see fit with regard to expanding or establishing their own economic existence. This is sustainable and guarantees lasting empowerment.