Peace Sisters Covid Response
In these trying times of Covid when it sometimes feels like all the news is bad, it is encouraging to hear that there are still corners of the world that are doing okay. Thankfully this appears to be the case where Peace Sisters operates in the north of Togo. As of right now, Dapaong has only seen about nine cases of the virus and life is starting to pick up again as before.
When the shutdown began in the US back in March, we reached out to our colleagues in Togo and determined how we could best help to contain the virus there. Along with some other local organizations in Dapaong, Peace Sisters pitched in by procuring hand washing stations and hand sanitizer. We also provided instructions for how local people could produce masks and improvised forms of PPE.
Due to unreliable access to running water, the hand washing stations were essential to allowing local people to maintain good hygiene and they were placed at various locations throughout the city. One of our donors in California, Helen O'Keeffe Vajk, also donated a box of KN95 masks, transparent face shields, and cloth masks that we shipped to Dapaong for use at their hospital.
We can only speculate about why Togo has slipped under the radar of this virus thus far. They shut down early and instituted very strict quarantines when cases were suspected. It probably helped that there are relatively few international visitors in the region and also that the vast majority of people’s daily activities are conducted outdoors. Whatever the case, we are grateful for this good news because things could have gone very differently.
Covid's Impact on Our Students
Despite this good news, the shutdown has had its toll on our students. Due to the limitations of technology in Togo, when the schools closed in March education came to a standstill. Distance learning is impossible in a place where many people do not even have electricity in their homes, so our girls lost out on months of education that they will never recover.
About a month ago schools started to reopen on a limited basis. In Togo there are certain grades that require standardized tests in order to pass to the next level, and the students in those classes returned to school in order to prepare for the exams that are scheduled to begin in August. Assuming this limited restart of school goes well, it is anticipated that the rest of the students will begin the new school year in September, and Peace Sisters will be there to pay the school fees that will allow our girls to continue their educations.