DRVR-TOGO runs a sewing apprenticeship program. Click here for some background. In June 2022, the 13 graduates of our first class were awarded the tools of the trade: sewing machines, scissors, iron holders, charcoal irons, hair dryers, rechargeable clippers, plastic barrels, mirrors, … These young graduates have become bosses with their destinies in their hands. They are ready to open their own shops offering men’s sewing, women’s sewing, women’s hairdressing, and men’s hairdressing. We are eager to receive future containers to support this extensive program we have started. Your donations of bicycles and sewing machines improve living conditions here in Togo and elsewhere in the world. We want to tell you here and now that there is a waiting list for days, months, years to come.

Here are some success stories from our first group of graduates.

Akoélévi Antoinette ASSAGBAVI

My name is Akoélévi Antoinette ASSAGBAVI. I am 21 years old, and I have been one of the beneficiaries of the program of the DRVR-TOGO association for 3 years. I was born into a family of 7 children. We lost our mother very early and few girls in my community have the right to go to school like boys. We are made to accompany our mothers in the kitchen and various domestic activities. After the death of my mother, I was adopted by my aunt and brought to Nigeria at the age of 6 for a long period without education and also without learning a trade. Back in the village for my father’s funeral ceremonies, I finally decided not to go back to my aunt’s house to live this life of mistreatment and unhappy domestic life.

One day I heard a radio program about the possibility of free support for young people wishing to learn any trade of their choice. I quickly contacted their service and was admitted to the program. After 3 years of perseverance and courage, here I am, the holder of my end-of-training diploma in men’s and women’s sewing. At the beginning, I thought of a dream which finally became a reality: 12 other people and I who can now open our own workshops and save money to take care of ourselves and feed our families. Sincere thanks to DRVR-TOGO, P4P/SP, and all their staff and donors.

Grace Yawa AGBOZO

My name is Grace Yawa AGBOZO. I was born in 2000 in a polygamous family where my mother has 5 other co-wives with several brothers and sisters at the family home in Agbozo-kpédji/VO. My story is a little sad to listen to, but I ask you to understand me. I am my mother’s eldest; my parents never had the courage to enroll me in elementary school like all the other children of my age. When I was 10 years old, after a short illness, I was forced by my father to be admitted to a convent after a few ceremonies under the pretext of paying a family debt from our ancestors to the voodoo priest. The days and the months pass. It turns out that I have to marry the voodoo priest. I have just turned 12, but discussions about this contract started when I was born. I am at the end of my tether — how can a 12-year-old girl become a housewife? A few months later I had my first boy and then my second at less than 14 years old and then life goes on.

One evening, during a ceremony in a village not far from our home, my so-called husband had a stroke and he fell. We found a way to bring him to the hospital, but he didn’t survive. We women have been subjected to weeks of widowhood ceremonies. One day, I decided to escape this prison life with my two boys and return to my parents. The chief of my village called DRVR-TOGO to help us. I was sent directly to the evening school for adults organized by the DRVR team. After I learned to read and write French, I was sent to the apprenticeship program for a period of 3 years.

Today here I am among the stars. On my return to my village I will go with my beautiful sewing machines to the chief by whom all this good news began. My life and that of my two children have changed and I will sing the glory forever. All my family and I give thanks from the bottom of our hearts to all near or far who have contributed to making me a winner forever: to DRVR-TOGO and to P4P/SP, whose actions change living conditions on the other side of the world.

Mawuse Fiovi ADANLESSOSSI-AVOUDE

I am 23 years old. Since I was a child I have had problems with my vision. My parents found an excuse or saw fit not to enroll me in school. A child who cannot see well is going to have to learn a trade to have financial means to go to the big hospitals for treatment. One day when I was 17, my father spoke with a nurse passing through our village with a mobile vaccination program against poliomyelitis, a disease that frequently develops in children under 5 years old in our community. My father learned that a humanitarian organization would send me to the city hospital for consultation and treatment. I was taken in and over a period of 2 years my eyesight improved.

So I decided to go and learn the trade of sewing, which had always interested me. Four years later I was ready to take my final apprenticeship exam when to my great surprise I discovered that I did not have a birth certificate — another problem but quickly solved by the dynamism and the determination by the team of the DRVR-TOGO. I had my birth certificate, and I also passed my exam on time. Today I have my sewing machine, which will allow me to open my own workshop to work and achieve all my ambitions. This work is really great. Congratulations for always being there for the well-being of others. Congratulations to you wherever you are. Continue to save other people in difficulties worse than mine. Once again thank you and please do what you can.