M.E.T.I.S. x Africa Smile au Togo

M.E.T.I.S. X AFRICA SMILE IN TOGO

Text: Elsa Hoti | University of Lausanne

In April 2021, M.E.T.I.S. was contacted by Africa Smile, a Togolese association that aims to fight against poverty on multiple levels: Environmental, educational, social and regarding public health. Africa Smile has already been collaborating with multiple French institutions, in particular for the construction of schools and photovoltaic panels, which allow to bring electricity to the most remote villages. M.E.T.I.S. was approached in order to help out in the Public Health sector of the association. Several videoconference calls allowed us to get to know the members and founders of the Africa Smile, and eventually, it became clear that we would have to experience Togo from our own point of view.

Three members of the M.E.T.I.S. executive board (Pascale Meyer, President of M.E.T.I.S. 20/21, Sébastien Anchise, our current VicePresident, and Elsa Hoti, President of M.E.T.I.S. 21/22), decided to travel to Togo in July in order to see firsthand where we can help the local people in the combat against inequalities in access to health care. After a long journey, we were welcomed by the Founders of the association, who would accompany us from the capital Lomé all the way to the remote villages further up North.

Our trip started with a visit to an orphanage built and run by Africa Smile in YotoKopé. The farmstyle orphanage provides not only a roof to sleep under, but also food and access to the school of the local village. Our journey then took us to the region of Blittà, further up North, where we helped out in the peripheral care unit (USP) of Yaloumbé, which is also supported by Africa Smile. Infrastructure and equipment are very limited, and they are also short on personnel, as education and professional training are too expensive for most people of the local community.

On our last day in Blittà, we conducted a screening mission for malnutrition in the rural villages of the Region. Africa Smile organizes caloriedense mealreplacement rations for moderately malnourished children, the more severe cases are directly transported to the hospital of Blittà.

On this particular day, we came across a threeyearold boy with his grandmother. He was not only severely undernourished but showed many symptoms and signs that set off our alarm bells. It was decided on the spot that this child needed urgent care; raised by his grandparents and having no resources, we decided to take him to the hospital and finance his treatment. After multiple days in Sokodé Hospital, the little boy was transported to Lomé with the suspected diagnosis of renal neoplasia. However, he was not yet stable enough to be operated on; first came multiple rounds of antibiotics, renutrition and rehydration. His treatment would exceed our stay in Lomé, but Africa Smile kept – and still keeps – us updated on a regular basis on the progress of the boy's treatment. We spent our last days in Lomé, working in a community medical center run by nuns, which offers consultation in general medicine, ophthalmology, obstetrics and even has a lab for blood tests. Even though it was far from what we know here, conditions were relatively acceptable in comparison to what we had seen in the rural areas of Blittà.

We believe that it is close to impossible to fight against equalities in access to health without covering the basic needs of any population; this is why our collaboration started with access to water. After experiencing firsthand how villagers walked up to 10km to the nearest well only to invite us to eat with them for dinner we funded the construction of a well in Toule Waie, the very village we had found the little boy during our screening mission for malnutrition. At this point, we would like to say thank you from all of our heart to our friends and families who have supported us financially in this mission! After seeing the impact that this one well has had on the local community, we would like to integrate the construction of wells in the development of our project. Furthermore, we continue to support the screening of malnutrition. Future projects include financing the rental of a mill to produce vitaminenriched flour for the rations given out to the children. In order to provide all of this, we have elected a new post in our committee, the Responsable Togo Nadin Söylemez, who will lead a team of volunteers to raise funds throughout the year, and then return to Togo in order to provide a detailed report on how we can continue to make progress. During their time on site, the team will also help out in the various health centers.

We are looking forward to seeing the project flourish over time; if you want to support this cause, don’t hesitate to reach out to togo.metis@ swimsa.ch!

M.E.T.I.S. began its journey in Lomé, the capital, and reached Blittà in central Togo (source: orangesmile.com)