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Togo: Comfort for the child victims of the fire at the Great Market
10 May 2013 Child Protection SystemsTogo
Photo taken in the Tdh office in the market of Lomé
On Saturday 12th January, a terrible fire started in the Great Market of Adawlato in Lomé around one o’clock in the morning. This drama, that moved the whole country, happened before the very eyes of many powerless traders, journalists and the Terre des hommes team. The building with the office for listening to the children from the market and the Hope Point where psychosocial activities take place went up in smoke. But the real disaster was not the material losses but the increased situation of vulnerability into which the children from the market were plunged once again. Tdh generally helps the children who work there as mobile sellers stationed around the market; but they now have nowhere to go and are deprived of their income, so these children are looking for other jobs to provide for their needs and are thus far more vulnerable to the risks of exploitation, maltreatment and every sort of abuse. Thanks to their experience on the ground and the projects already in progress, Tdh and its partners were able to come to their aid without delay.
The market of Adawlato, one of the main economic spots of Togo , was consumed by the flames that Saturday in January. Thousands of men and women and many children with them, found themselves on the streets without any means of livelihood.
Even before this sad incident, all the players in child protection and the Ministry for Social Affairs got together in 2012 to develop a huge project to benefit these children, whose workload is too heavy for their age. In view of the economic ravages caused by the fire, the existence of this project is a great help for the hundreds of children who were its victims. Following the disaster, the teams quickly went to identify the children affected by the fire. 514 children were found from the 615 beneficiaries of Tdh’s project at the Great Market, and research was continued in the market and the schools situated close to it.
Today, these children are supported in accordance with the aims of the project of Tdh and its partners. Meals are provided daily for some hundred children whose parents had no means of feeding them after the fire. The youngsters, shocked by what they had suffered, have since then been followed up by psychologists so they can talk about the drama and their everyday life. Finally, they continue to receive school and healthcare support as well as taking part in games and educational activities that allow them to find their feet again and to have a little fun.
These meetings were attended by the UNICEF, international NGOs such as Plan Togo and Terre des hommes, national NGOs such as the National Catholic Office for Children (BNCE), and the Action Movement for the Reintegration of Marginalized Children (MAREM), with strong involvement of state services like the Regional Management for Social Action, Lomé community, the Union Observatory for the fight against Child Labour (OSLTE), and the Town Council of the first arrondissement.
