The Non-governmental organization AGERTO (Association Germano-Togolaise) operates in three different training centers in the African country of Togo, one of the poorest in the entire world. Over here, a great amount of people lack sufficient food, water and electricity resources on a daily basis – things which one likes to take for granted in the developed countries.
Our organization’s main goal is the support of disadvantaged and marginalized groups in Togo, such as orphans and street children, who are facing a lot of challenges under the current societal circumstances. We mainly aim at reducing poverty in Togo and creating a sustainable future for the concerned population groups. Physically handicapped humans find shelter with us as well and we offer them support in their every-day life, since they face big problems in society due to their disabilities.
All these young people are offered free training in our training centers, being able to choose from a variety of skill trades: tailor, carpenter, metal worker, electrician, plumber, bricklayer, weaver. We know that education und work are indispensable to living a good and secured life, which is why we make big efforts to teach them all the necessary knowledge and skills. In order to reach this goal, many well-qualified teachers work for us, very often on a voluntary basis. They care deeply for the young people in our centers, day by day they do a lot of hard and honorable work und represent a crucial aspect of our success. To offer them a salary is one of the plans that is of great importance to us. When the trainees pass their final exam, our organization offers them a free working machine that can be of use to them while having a safe start into their working careers.
Moreover, our centers in Kpalimé, Akpakpakpé and Kemeni serve as accommodations for teenagers without a home who also profit off of our programs. We built the dorms and bathrooms ourselves and their improvement is an important matter for the development of our activities.
At the training centers, the youngsters also receive one free meal per day and we also take over necessary vaccinations and basic medical care, as long as the financial means to do so are at our disposal.
Another field where AGERTO is active concerns the matters of environment protection and sustainability. We try to improve our centers with simple but meaningful measures like professional garbage disposal and do something good for the environment at the same time. Furthermore, we try to have a positive influence on the surrounding communities with different projects. One of them represents one of our biggest projects so fare, where we aim at financing ground water drillings in several villages around Kpalimé, a project for which we need a lot of support as well.
AGERTO and is partners and supporters in Germany have been active for more than two decades fighting for all these different people and goals. The kinds of support are very diverse, starting from financial aids to our donations account in Germany, which fulfills all requirements set by the German tax office, and contributions in kind all the way to sponsorships for specific trainees and voluntary work in on location. Concerning the donations arriving on our German bank account, it is of course possible to demand and receive a receipt. The financial donations and donations in kind are a pivotal means in order to keep our projects running and start new ones from time to time. From the bottom of all our hearts, including all the trainees and teachers, we are deeply thankful to all our sponsors and supporters and are happy about every single one who decides to take part in our mission.
Feel free to have a look around on our website and inform yourself in a more detailed way about our training centers, projects, our association’s history and many other subjects!