Between November 2024 and January 2025, Sisters María Teresa Cuervo and María José Meira (Dedé) travel on behalf of the General Team to the Province of Africa.
Below we share the chronicle of their trip, between November 25 and December 2.
Third stop: Togo
Lomé
On Monday, November 25, we traveled from Gabon to Togo. There we approached the reality of Lomé, its capital, knowing and sharing life, in an attitude of reverence and listening, exchanging views and visions in the key of synodality and shared leadership. It was also an opportunity to make contact with the process of recreation of the Vedruna Charism in that reality.
Our community is literally located inside the market of the Hanoukopé neighborhood, a peripheral and marginalized area in the city of Lomé.
The primary mission is to accompany and manage the Kekeli Center child protection center. It is a work of the Congregation which, since November 2006, has been accompanying child victims of violence and sexual abuse in Togo, as well as child workers in Lomé, offering them the means to rehabilitate and develop fully.
Specifically, its objectives are:
- Strengthen the prevention of all types of child abuse/maltreatment, in particular the worst forms of child labor and sexual violence and child abuse among Togo’s child and adult population.
- To provide comprehensive care and support to girls who are victims of violence and sexual abuse in the commune of Lomé and the maritime regions, child workers and/or victims of mobility in the Hanoukopé market, girls who are victims of cross-border trafficking and girls at risk.
- Strengthen technical, financial and social alliances, participation in networks for advocacy actions in collaboration with other governmental and non-governmental institutions, as well as the visibility of the Center.
During our visit, we visited all its spaces, talked with the people who work there, and were greeted by a joyful welcome dance by the mothers who help at the center.
During our days in Lomé, we spent time with our community of sisters: Gabrielle Muntukwaku, Sylvie Kibikula, Lucie-Anne Mulata and Hermine Mutshili. Two of them, Hermine and Sylvie, are pursuing university studies, in specialized education and social service, respectively. We also shared with the three young women who are doing the Mutual Knowledge stage in the community: Eleanor, Colette and Anne Marie.
Agnes Agbegnigan: she is the first Togolese sister of the Congregation. Her family also attended: her parents from their village Atakpamé and her sisters and brothers who live in Lomé.
In Lomé we visited the parish of the neighborhood, dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua, of the Franciscans (OFM). The parish includes a church, a pastoral center, a school and a mortuary. There we share with the Franciscan friars in their celebration of the feast of Christ the King. Our sisters accompany the pastoral work in the parish, especially catechesis, youth and liturgy. We again marveled at the community gathering after mass.
We had the opportunity to meet the Bishop of Lomé, Mgr. Isaac Jogues Gaglo, and the parish priest of Atakpamé, the parish of the village of Agnes, Father Jean.
Some aspects that have caught our attention during these days have been:
All around our house, children and mothers live in the street, sleep on the floor, do not know in their experience what a mattress, a bed, a table to eat, cutlery… are.
- The poverty and vulnerability experienced by the people of the Hanoukopé neighborhood is “a poverty that hurts”, due to the precarious and unworthy conditions in which they live. The other side of this same reality is that they live an intense community life, with family ties based on mutual solidarity and inter-help that allows them to resist and strengthen community resilience in the hard struggle of life.
- The music, the rhythms, the dance are part of the DNA of this people: there are many manifestations in this sense.
- The clothes are well cared for, with a predominance of very bright colors and prints with strong and bright motifs, especially for women, but with relative frequency also for men, of all ages. The canvases that the women wear on their heads form, in general, a beautiful ensemble with the dress, the sandals or shoes and the bags.
- The figure of authority is especially respected and recognized. A peculiar form is to bow before the person invested with power, as a symbol of recognition of his power or authority.
- In the neighborhood parish there are three daily masses in the morning, at 5, 6 and 12 o’clock in the morning and, in all of them, there is a lot of participation of the Christian community. The first two masses are preceded by the prayer of Lauds from the Liturgy of the Hours. Most of the psalms and hymns are beautifully sung.
The other chronicles are already available:
