AFUNGA, BOGOU, KPADWAN, NAMOTONG AND GABONI are 5 of the 81 rural schools in the primary school network of La Sabanas in northern Togo, managed by the De La Salle Brothers for the Diocese of Dapaong. A total of 523 students (232 girls and 292 boys) from these schools are in need of food at least 3 days a week at school and almost daily during the dry season. This allows them to ensure not only an improvement in their nutrition, but also their permanence and good school performance, as well as being a support for their families lacking resources. Mothers, parents, teachers and the students themselves will participate in the implementation of each "school canteen" that will make this possible during this school year in each school.

The global project of the North Schools Network of Togo

The network of schools in northern Togo has 81 centers that base their operation and quality on the participatory self-management of all of them, together with the strength of a highly specialized coordination team that centralizes the provision of services and supplies to all.

The self-management of the school, one of the keys, is achieved through the awareness and commitment of parents to the school and the education of their children, as well as the pedagogical monitoring and constant management by the coordinating team.

In the last 6 years, under the direction of the Brothers of La Salle, the primary schools of the Diocese of Dapaong have gone from 20 to 81 and currently have almost 22,000 students. Its priority is schooling for girls.

The diocese of Dapaong was faced with the need to incorporate into the schools other basic services needed in the villages, thus serving as micro-networks of social development and addressing the most frequent causes of school absenteeism: undernutrition, diseases and need to get water every day. These basic services, served today by the network, are: school canteens (the children are given a meal, prepared by volunteer mothers from the village); school pharmacies (provision in each school of a kit of essential medicines for the use of children and their families) and construction of wells next to the schools to provide the village with water.

The Diocese works constantly and continuously to increase coverage and improve the quality of this social and educational service. For which, according to the demand of the beneficiaries and in agreement with the Togolese educational authorities, it plans and executes concrete actions.

Commitment of PROYDE / Experience in the project

PROYDE has been periodically supporting school canteens in rural schools in northern Togo since they were launched in 2002.

Local Partner Commitment / Experience in the project

The Diocese of Dapaong created a department for the development of education in the region 30 years ago. In the last 25 years, this direction of Catholic teaching has been carried out by the Brothers of La Salle in the Gulf of Benin. The purpose was and is to join efforts with the Ministry of Education of Togo to achieve full primary schooling in the region.

The program began 11 years ago with support for the operation of 27 schools in the Diocese of Dapaong, which has led to a notable increase in the school enrollment rate, a direct consequence of the decrease in the dropout rate in the region. Now the network of schools has 81 centers, 30 of which have decided to take advantage of the school canteen program.

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