Day 91 to 99: SALT Workshop in Togo
H2CWorld-dreamers!
Although we have been doing different projects in which we have used the SALT, we noticed that not all people understood the concept. One of the reasons main reasons is language barrier with communities. What was sure is that we need to know more on how the SALT is being used around the world. In Ghana nobody besides us is actively using the SALT approach (that we know) so we had to cross borders.
On Friday (15th of May) we heard from Blaise from the Croix Rouge Togolais that we could attend the workshop on the SALT and the PFE (Essential Family Practices)! This is organized by the Croix Rouge Togolais, the United Nations and the ministry of health of Togo.
Before that, we went to a Belgian party on Friday 16th of May! We both were very happy to enjoyed the pleasure of Belgian beer, cheese and fries with stoofvlees (carbonade)!
The next day on Sunday (17th of May) we left to Madina we went on the trotro to Aflao with Yorke. We crossed the border to Lomé for the second time. This time our final destination was not 5 km from the border but 450 km up north in Kara! So we left early early in the morning to make sure we would be on time for the workshop which would start the next day.
As this was the first time Yorke visited Togo and 2 minutes after arriving we all hoped on a motorbike (We wanted him to have the full experience). We managed to get a trotro to Kara (as no buses were left). We sat down next to each other and to our horror we discovered that four other people had to sit next to each other! The trotro was way too small for this but it happened anyway. After sitting cramped for 7 hours in a sardine can we arrived in Sokodé (city south of Kara).
There they changed us into a taxi. In the car there were 8 people! It’s the first time we saw two people behind the steering wheel. Anyway late in the evening we arrived and finally could put our broken bodies to rest in Kara.
The next day the workshop started: The assistants were representatives of the regional Reds Cross, mothers, nurses, health agents, women in charge of promotion the PFE. The people were introduced to the SALT. Why? After several years of campaigning on PFE, child morbidity and mortality was still increasing in the regions of Kara and Savanne (2 regions in Togo). To improve the effect of the campaigning they have done before, they combined it with the Self-Assessment Framework. People then compared ways of working with communities. On day 2 and 3 participants started to break get really active. The atmosphere was so comfortable, allowing people to let their imagination run wildly and people were coming with their own solutions for problems. Very nice to see. Moving on to the 4th and final day the final comments were made and everybody shared what they appreciated.
There we met Adikou a lovely and cheerful man who took good care of us, and other lovely people. We also had the opportunity to have some lovely meet and beer with Blaise who gave us once again advice. We like Kara!
All happy we went back on a 10 hours drive to Lomé. There where we stayed one night and enjoyed the evening. The next day (Friday 22th of May) we went to our favourite place: the Togolese border. There we had some troubles. We experienced corruption and this is why we had to let go Yorke. Yorke could return to his homeland after some struggle. We had to stay one more night in Lomé as we needed to empty our pockets first.
Next day we ran back to Ghana (leaving more money on the way) and then finally felt the comfort of home :)
Would we do the whole trip again?
DEFINITELY!
