This year, we welcomed twenty-two new middle school scholars to the Pathways Togo family! These scholars were recruited from the Plateaux region of Togo.
Photo of new scholars taken on September 14th, 2021 in Évêché, Atakpamé, during the Annual conference. Five other new scholars were not able to take the group picture.
Annual Life Skills Conference
The scholars traveled to Atakpamé for the annual conference accompanied by their marraines, women role models who play a vital role in their education within their communities. During the conference from September 13-14, our Pathways Togo scholars were equipped with school supplies and were armed with advice on how to be successful during the academic year. These conferences give scholars an opportunity to network with other scholars, learn valuable information and experience an environment outside of their communities. The conferences play a key role for them to reach their professional dreams and allow them to become future change makers in their communities.
Group picture at the end of this year’s annual conference, September 14th, 2021, Évêché , Atakpamé , Togo
Meet our scholars Yvette, the future electrician
Yvette was part of the six scholars accepted in the Pathways Togo family in 2019. This year, Yvette was admitted to high school. She is studying to become an electrician in the national vocational school located in Sokodé, in the Centrale region of Togo. Her goal is to contribute to bringing electricity to the rural areas of Togo in the future. According to Yvette, many other young girls have the potential to improve the quality of life of people in the world, but they do not have the appropriate moral and financial support needed to reach their dreams. The initial goal of Pathways Togo is to offer such support to talented girls who otherwise would not be able to afford to pursue their education. Women are essential to the development of a nation and the world, and that’s the reason why Pathways Togo always invests in girls’ education. We cannot achieve such a tremendous mission without the support of our donors who play a pivotal role for this goal to become a reality.
Here is what Yvette said when she was applying to become a Pathways Togo scholar in 2019. ‘’My name is Yvette Kimealo. (Kimealo means born on Saturday). In class, I am ranked first and my classmates are proud of me. I am respectful to everyone. However, there are difficulties I face such as illness, lack of money to pay for school. I manage by going to the hospital and selling tomatoes and salad from the gardens to find money to pay for school. Outside of school, I like to play sports. As my parents are farmers, I go to the field on weekends. If I have the opportunity to help my community, I will equip my villages with separate boys’ and girls’ toilets in schools and bring electric light to every rural community of Togo.”
Photo of Yvette receiving her science books, the photo was taken on September 14th, 2021 during the Annual conference in Eveché, Atakpamé.
Fostering Digital Literacy Among Our Univeristy Scholars.
At the university level, Pathways Togo secures brand new laptops for every young woman who is accepted to university. Young women are then trained on digital skills so that they can be empowered through technology.Two years after gaining computer skills through Pathways Togo-facilitated workshops for our university-level scholars, two of our scholars who are in their second year at the university, are now training other young women on digital literacy. Your generous donations have helped to sow a seed which has started producing fruit.
From top left to bottom right respectively, the first photo shows the Pathways Togo scholars learning digital skills in Lomé campus in February 2021, on the second photo Awa is holding the certificate in the front of the picture - she is one of our university scholars who attended a training workshop organized by a partner organization called Komlan Apetole Group in Lomé, the third photo shows three other girls learning computer skills organized by Awa to give back with the support of the partner organization Komlan Apetole Group, the last photo shows the group picture with Awa at the back delivering the end of training certificates to participants.
Where Are They Now ? A Pathways Togo Alumnae Story
Created in 2010, Pathways Togo envisioned that “to educate women is to empower the world.” Eleven years later, Pathways Togo is achieving its vision. In every article, we will share stories from Pathways Togo alumnae. Passimsouwé was recommended to Pathways Togo in 2013 by her local sponsors, not only because she was brilliant in school but was also lacking the financial support. She is from Farendé, a little village in the Kara region located in the northern part of Togo. After earning her bachelor’s degree, she became a volunteer teacher in a primary school. She then passed the national teachers’ exam and became a professional teacher in 2018. This year, she was promoted to principal in her school near Kara. When she informed us about her tremendous achievement, she declared “I am proud to become not only a principal, but a female principal among many male principals. I will finally help to generate approaches to institutionalize inclusive education.”
Photo of Passimssouwè in her community
Individualized Support is Vital for Our Scholars' Success.
In Togo, one of the poorest countries in the world, it is costly for families to send their children to school. In addition to school supplies, books and uniforms, once a student gets to the middle school level, families are required to pay for registration and exam fees, for identification documents required for their exams, and for "cotisation parallèle" an often-substantial fee which varies widely by region and is used to pay for school improvements and volunteer teachers. Another consideration for families is having a child in school also reduces the earning potential for the family because they cannot help as much tending the fields or working in the market. This puts school out of reach for the children in many families and when families cannot afford to send all of their children to school, they are more likely to send their sons rather than their daughters due to the patriarchal nature of the society. This is why Pathways Togo scholars are all girls and women as they have fewer opportunities to attend school.
This year, the Togolese government decided to waive school registration fees and exam fees for everyone in middle school and high school in order to offset the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption to the 2020-2021 school year. Families are still expected to pay the “cotisation parallèle” and for uniforms, books and other necessary costs. During the last week of September, classrooms were filled with children throughout Togo. We noticed parents’ relief when their sons and daughters were able to successfully enroll in school this year. However, despite this, we still worry about the follow-up support students, especially girls, will receive after they are enrolled in school. At Pathways Togo we have found that success in school does not solely depend on the school fees being paid for the year, it also depends on the support both moral and financial that a student receives throughout the year. Girls in Togo traditionally do not have a lot of community and familial support to attend school due to social, cultural, and economic barriers.
Pathways Togo works hard to provide the support that girls need to succeed in school and in life and to break down their barriers to success. Pathways Togo not only pays for scholars’ school fees, we also provide school supplies, tutoring, life skills training, mentoring and other individualized assistance and support unique to each scholar. These additional supports can include room and board for our university students and some high school students who do not have a high school in their community and specialized supplies for scholars on vocational tracts like our scholar, Yvette, who is studying to be an electrician. During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we provided internet service to our university students so that they could participate in distance learning. We conduct site visits to all of our scholars in order to see them in their own environment and uncover otherwise overlooked needs and identify barriers to their success and put in supports to counteract those barriers. While school registration and exam fees have been waived for our middle and high school scholars this year, it is only a small part of the support that each of our scholars receive and that little bit of extra room in our budget will assist us in supporting more of those individualized needs to ensure our scholars’ success. We strive to be responsive, timely and attentive to the identified needs of scholars so that their success is not limited in any way. We do everything in our power to support our scholars so that they can advance academically and achieve their goals.
Photo of Grace Attignon, Pathways Togo Program Administrator in the middle of three scholars iduring the sites visits last October.
Farewell To Meghan
Meghan McCloskey Boydston has left the board after 5 years of service! We thank Meghan for all of her hard work and for serving as our Board Vice President. She will be greatly missed!
Photo of Meghan in Togo making the traditional Togolese dish - fufu - during her Peace Corps service
