The Education Togo association has been creating educational infrastructure in Togo since 2010 and supports young people on their educational path. Togo is one of the poorest countries in the world. According to UNESCO, 51% of girls and women over the age of 15 cannot read and write sufficiently. We spoke to board member Katja Thum about the association's activities and social impact.
What exactly does Education Togo do and how did it come about?
We are a non-profit organization from Vienna that was founded in 2010. Our vision is to support people in Togo in leading a dignified, self-determined life. We try to achieve this through various projects in the field of educational infrastructure in order to create the necessary framework conditions for a solid education and training for the start of this self-determined life. We have already built six schools, an internet café, a library and two solar plants in Togo and regularly support pupils with scholarships and advanced workshops (e.g. in IT or sex education).
What is your role at the club and when did you join?
I joined Education Togo in October 2016. I had wanted to get involved in charitable work for a long time, but hadn't yet found the right association in Vienna. At the time, I was taking a course at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, which was about fundraising strategies. I knew that in previous years the donations from the course projects had always gone to Education Togo. After a conversation with the former lecturer, I was invited to the next Education Togo team meeting. Since then, I have been heavily involved in the association's work, especially in marketing and accounting. However, everyone is also involved in other areas, such as project management - depending on where there is a need at the time.
As far as I know, the association is based in Vienna, but some of you live abroad. How do you still manage to communicate regularly and drive the projects forward?
We have a very important colleague in Germany who is originally from Togo. We are mostly in contact with her via the internet and telephone conferences so that she is also involved in the progress and meetings. We communicate with our local coordinator in Togo, Razak, mainly online via email and WhatsApp so that we can exchange information as quickly and regularly as possible. We also try to fly to Togo ourselves about once a year to get an impression of the progress being made on the ground. These trips allow us to gather input from our local partners and communities and inspire us to come up with new project ideas.
What specific projects are you currently working on?
In recent weeks, we have put a lot of work into fundraising for our annual scholarships. As many Togolese families cannot afford to send all their children to school, it is usually the girls in Africa who suffer the most. Our aim is therefore to specifically support these girls with a scholarship so that they too have the chance of a solid school education. Every year, 290 schoolgirls receive such a scholarship from us. Other projects that we are planning in the near future include new school desks and wells for our existing schools as well as a new school building for a school in the Kara area.
We are currently collecting donations via a crowdfunding campaign on Respekt.net to finance 100 school scholarships for the 2018-19 school year. With just €20, we can finance a girl's school attendance for a year.
What has been the best moment for you so far during your time at Education Togo?
In May 2018, I had the opportunity to fly to Togo myself for the first time! The trip was an incredible experience, as you can gain completely new impressions by visiting the country. Meeting the students and teachers in person was also incredibly emotional. I was finally able to see with my own eyes the positive impact our work here in Vienna has on the people in Togo. This experience is of course very motivating to continue working on new projects, because unfortunately there are still many problems in Togo that need to be resolved, such as a lack of electricity or water shortages in the schools.
How can you work with Education Togo?
Education Togo is a non-profit association that is largely made up of volunteers. We all have normal jobs and do charitable work for the association on the side. Anyone who is interested in working for a good cause is welcome to join our association at any time. We work in a very flexible and relaxed atmosphere, i.e. it is up to each person to decide how much time they want to invest in the association and in which area they want to work.
The interview was conducted by NGOJobs founder Ferdinand Lischka, who has been involved with the Education Togo association since mid-2018 and provides support in fundraising and web administration, among other things.
