In 2019, in the village of Togokome in Togo, we started an apprenticeship project with our partner association Maison Dora for state-recognized dual apprenticeship courses, for tailors and cooks. In the rural region with many poor families, young women have little chance of  training for a better future. In the first year of apprenticeships, 12 women had started; from September 20, the next group of 20 women should start. Now the state has closed all state schools indefinitely due to the corona crisis. The young girls have to stay at home, the first year of training is at risk. The staff must also expect wage reductions because there is no income. In the sewing workshop, they started tailoring protective masks and putting up water buckets for hygiene, as well as providing information about protective measures against Covid 19. The outpatient clinic in the village also has received protective masks.
Overall, the families in the region are suffering from severe economic hardship. In order to compensate for the hardship, we would like to help the young apprentices, the staff and their families, as well as the families in the catchment area of ​​the center with food such as corn, rice, oil. We also want to help with the purchase of fabrics for tailoring protective masks. We will send the donations directly to our project partners. Purchasing and distribution of food and protective masks as well as documentation is organized by the team at Maison Dora. First of all, we hope for help for the next 4 months from May to August 20, since hopefully the training with hygiene concepts can start again in September.