We began our ministry in Togo in 2009 with the Child Sponsorship Program. In just under two years we have registered more than 4,300 children and we partner with 20 Implementing Church Partners.

Our country office has a staff of 13 and three major departments: Ministry Services, Program Implementation and Program Communications.

Country Director

Komlavi Ataty Agbeayema (aka Peter) joined our ministry in Togo in 2009 as a Program Facilitator and then became acting Program Implementation Manager. Soon after, he was appointed Country Director.

Before coming to our ministry, Peter gained a wealth of experience working with national and international non-govermental organizations such as Christian Children Fund, the National Association for the Promotion of People with Special Needs, the Special Olympics, and Lifeline International, where he served as executive director for the West Africa region.

Peter holds a masters degree in social science from the University of Dakar in Senegal.

He is one of the preachers at his local church, the International Pentecostal Church, and he and his wife help with many other church activities as well.

Implementing Church Partners

Implementing Church Partners (ICPs) are local churches in Togo with whom we work to deliver child development ministry to the field.

• Spiritual Climate
  The majority of the Togo population are traditionalists and animists. Overall, there are very few Christians in Togo, but evangelical Christian churches are growing in number. As of this report, there is no known persecution of Christians in Togo.
• Unique Challenges
  One challenge we face is that we do not have enough staff. Staff members must take on additional responsibilities, which makes it difficult for them to focus on one particular job.
• Contributions
  Implementing Church Partners construct offices for child development centers and provide office furniture for the development center staff. Some ICPs provide computers for the center office, but that is rare.



• Partner Development Activities
  Our ministry in Togo develops partners through training and by supplying them with manuals and documents.

Child Development Through Sponsorship

Your sponsorship of a child in Togo provides a variety of benefits, including educational assistance, nutritional support, medical checkups and medicines (as needed), development of social and practical skills, biblical teaching, and opportunities to give his or her life to Jesus Christ.

• Meeting Times

  The children are busy with school during weekdays, so they meet for eight hours each Saturday at their Compassion-assisted child development centers.

  • 3 to 5 year olds: 8 hours on Saturday
  • 6 to 8 year olds: 8 hours on Saturday
  • 9 to 11 year olds: 8 hours on Saturday
  • 12 to 14 year olds: We have not yet started



• Nutritional Support
  Every child receives a meal each time he or she attends the development center. A typical meal consists of rice, chicken and fruit. We provide this food because the children are not fed at school and the food at home is often not nutritionally balanced.

  

• Vaccinations
  Standard vaccinations are given free of charge to the children at nearby public clinics.
• Extracurricular Activities or Community Service
  The children participate regularly in sports and tree planting.
• Parent Involvement
  Some parents help with food preparation for the children on Saturdays.
• Areas of Expansion for the Child Survival Program
  After we have covered the majority of the capital city, we plan to expand our ministry to the northern part of Togo.

Complementary Interventions

Our core child sponsorship program, while comprehensive, does not address all obstacles to a child’s healthy development. The Complementary Interventions program was created to work with our holistic child development model to provide additional services, such as our AIDS Initiative, Bibles for all children, disaster relief and water projects.

Our ministry in Togo uses Complementary Interventions to support families during disasters and to distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

Highly Vulnerable Children

The main need among highly vulnerable children in Togo is shelter. To address this, we are planning to train parents on income-generating activities.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

If you have trouble viewing the slideshow above, you can view the photos on Flickr.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Like how long it would take you to count to 1 million (14 days).

Or how much 1 million dollar bills weigh (2,204 pounds).

Because as important as 1 million is, and as huge of a milestone as 1 million sponsored children is, it’s really just about one child.

And a few weeks ago, I got to meet that one child — Fellow Blewussi Kpodo. He lives in a dusty community just outside of Lomé, Togo.

Fellow’s whole family had come out for our meeting. His father stood proudly, his arm on the shoulder of his oldest son. Fellow’s two older sisters darted in and out of the house, covering their faces and giggling at the sight of my pale skin. His younger brother made himself at home in my lap.

All the while, Fellow watched the commotion with his solemn brown eyes.

I stared at his eyes when he wasn’t looking. Fringed with dark eyelashes, I wondered at what they had seen.

They had watched his father battered by grief when Fellow’s mother died five years ago.

They had filled with tears when the headmaster sent him home from school because he didn’t have his school fees — again.

They had stung with smoke as he bent over the small fire he prepared every evening for his sisters to cook cassava and dried fish for dinner.

And now, those same eyes sought out mine.

“He has a question for you,” explained the interpreter. I nodded. “He wants to know if you know his sponsor.”

I grinned at Fellow, and for the first time a smile reached his eyes.

“I don’t know her,” I explained. “But I know that you are very special to her.”

And in that moment, everything else faded away. Fellow wasn’t one of a million children. He was just one.

One child.

One sponsor.

One more step toward changing the world.

“The child must know that he is a miracle, that since the beginning of the world there hasn’t been, and until the end of the world there will not be, another child like him.” – Pablo Casals

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

And who better to stand alongside this precious little one than the world’s strongest woman? Fellow’s sponsor is Jang Mi-Ran, a long-time Compassion supporter and Olympic gold medalist weight lifter from Korea.

So, the strongest woman in the world is now sponsoring one of the most vulnerable children in the world!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

However, this particular day we have a sponsorship that is very special in that it represents a milestone for our ministry. Compassion is currently serving 1 million sponsored children! One million!!

I wish we could all be together today to celebrate this joyous moment. What a day it is!

Thank you sponsors! Thank you for your love of children. Thank you for your faithfulness to God’s call on your lives.

I love you, and I love serving the Lord with you through this amazing ministry!

Updated at 4:30 p.m. MDT

“Look at the nations and watch – and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” – Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)

Tune into Fox and Friends tomorrow (May 21) at 6:50 a.m. EDT to “meet” our 1 millionth child and his sponsor.

The newly sponsored child lives with his father outside Togo’s capital city of Lomé. Togo, a country whose population is seriously affected by the devastation of AIDS, is the most recent country to join the growing list of nations where Compassion works.

The child’s sponsor is from South Korea, the country in which Compassion began its mission 57 years earlier. The sponsor is most recently noted for a gold medal she won at last year’s Beijing Olympics.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

The little girl told me that as we sat with her and her mother under a mango tree. The fruit was not ripe yet, and still sat high and green and out of her reach.

Just behind the house, a few rows of corn grew. But they didn’t belong to her family. She could see them every day. But they were out of her reach.

I feel like every week I write about children who “went to bed hungry.” And they did. But right then, I sat before a little girl who literally went to bed less than 24 hours ago with nothing to eat.

I tried to imagine the tiny bit of hunger I’ve felt in my life, magnified. That small ache after missing a meal turned into deep pain after missing one, two, three meals. The slight ache when I take my lunch late turned into a pounding, relentless headache when late turns into never.

I couldn’t imagine it. But this little girl doesn’t have to imagine it. She lives it.

She is hungry when she walks past the market, her pockets empty.

She is hungry when her neighbors light up their braziers at night while her family’s remains cold.

She is hungry while fresh fruits and vegetables are in her sight, but not on her table.

As we left that night, we hauled a bag of rice out of the back of our van. Her mother bowed her head, thanking us over and over. And I knew that when this little girl visited the child development center, she would receive a meal. And that the center workers would watch her carefully, and at the first sign of malnutrition, she would be treated.

Those things are not out of her reach.

Merci

She walked slowly out of her classroom, her face turned towards the ground. Her shoulders hunched up around her ears, the ragged sleeves of her dress nearly reaching her elbows.

“What’s wrong with her?” I asked the group around me. They stopped the girl, and French phrases passed much too quickly for me to keep up. Finally, someone translated for me.

“She can’t pay her school fees, so they’re sending her home.”

That’s when I noticed the headmaster, moving from class to class, a list in his hands. Those were the children who hadn’t paid their fees. He was calling them to the front of their class and asking for the school’s money. And if they didn’t have it, they were sent home.

Read the rest of the entry at I’m Just Sayin’

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Afi stood shyly inside her home as we hauled in our gear — cameras, video equipment, tripods and microphones. Her dusty yard was shaded by heavy papaya trees, offering a bit of relief from the hot sun that had beat down on us for the past few hours.

I sat on a small wooden stool, worn smooth.

Afi’s brothers crowded onto a splintered bench that leaned against a tree trunk. Afi and her mother sat close together, a microphone just a few inches from their heads.

The interview went smoothly. But my mind is one of a journalist. So I sat there, gnawing on my pen cap, wondering what my “angle” would be.

My thoughts were interrupted when one of the child development center workers leaned close and began whispering to me.

She told me that 8-year-old Afi had been to school for only three months in her entire life. Yet, just a few weeks ago she had tested eighth out of the 50 children in her class.

This quiet little girl in front of me, the one who swept the dirt yard of her family’s compound at this very moment, was brilliant. And it hit me.

Afi wasn’t a rebellious child who had been reformed by Compassion. She was relatively healthy. Her parents loved her and had never abused her.

But if not for the support of Compassion, Afi would have slipped through the cracks. She would have spent entire days on the futile task of sweeping that very dirt yard.

I don’t know if she would have found some other way to further her education. I don’t know if God would have provided some other way for her to overcome.

But I don’t have to wonder about those things. Afi is in school now. She is learning and growing every day.

I know that she has opportunities that didn’t exist for her a year ago. And I know that she has not slipped through the cracks.

I believe Afi’s world has been changed.

But I also believe that Afi will change the world.

That is Afi’s angle.

199

“How many children are at the project we’re going to?” I asked the Compassion worker as we finished up lunch.

“One hundred ninety-nine,” she answered. What an odd number. She must have noticed my confused look.

“They lost a child last month.”

I wished with everything that “lost a child” literally meant lost a child. As in just misplaced for a few days. She would be back soon. But I knew that wasn’t the case.

“What happened to her?” someone else at the table asked. I couldn’t bring myself to say it. I couldn’t acknowledge what “lost” really meant.

Read the rest of the entry at I’m Just Sayin’

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

You can now find all of those maps in our Flickr account.

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates

Good! We have that for you!

Visit Togo’s news page and read what the Acting Country Director has to say about Compassion’s impact in Togo thus far. We think you’ll be encouraged

Also, if you would like to stay updated on what is happening in our newest country, you can subscribe to the Togo feed.

Excuse us! Is that you? Are you still here? Move along now, go read the update!

My Account l Sponsor a Child l Help Babies and Moms l Crisis Updates