Yentougle and Yenhame are 13-year-old twins who both have visual disabilities. Through Humanity & Inclusion's inclusive education project in Togo, they are receiving personalized support to excel at school.

Yentougle and her brother Yenhame are two of seven siblings, four of whom have some level of visual disability. Their family lives in Sibortoti, a village in northern Togo. With a limited income, their parents cannot afford specialized care and schooling. Through an inclusive education project tailored to support students who are blind or living with low vision, the twins are receiving an education adapted to their needs.

Because of their disabilities, Yentougle and Yenhame had difficulty moving around and finding their way on their own. They couldn’t play games with other children and experienced discrimination.

"We couldn't send them on errands," says Tchable Lyabine, the twins' father. "They couldn't help us with the daily chores, like cleaning, or with the gardening. Their mother had to be with them all the time, to take them to school and pick them up afterwards."

In 2012, the siblings were identified by the Association des Personnes Handicapées Motivées de Tône, one of Humanity & Inclusion’s partner organizations. For the past 10 years, Humanity & Inclusion’s teams have provided support to the twins.

Inclusive education and other assistance

Yentougle and Yenhame are enrolled in the local primary school. Humanity & Inclusion has provided them with clothes, backpacks, shoes and other school supplies adapted to their specific needs.

Their teacher receives technical support from Humanity & Inclusion and has been trained in inclusive teaching techniques and methods to help him support the twins with their learning.

Yentougle and Yenhame receive personalized educational support from an itinerant teacher specialized in assisting students with visual disabilities. The teacher visits their home several times a week to provide tutoring, transcribe lessons and help them do exercises in Braille.

Yentougle and Yenhame have received medical support, including consultations and eye care financed by the organization. Humanity & Inclusion and its partner have also provided them with canes to help with their mobility and autonomy. The organizations also distribute food kits to the twins' family.

Awareness-raising activities have been organized within the community to combat the stigmatization of the twins. As a result, Yentougle and Yenhame experience less discrimination. Today, the twins have made friends in their village and play games with other children. Their friends often accompany them home from school.

Around 15,000 people are unhoused in Togo’s capital, Lomé. Humanity & Inclusion is helping them combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Covid-19 crisis has exacerbated circumstances for people living in vulnerable situations, especially those who are unhoused. Lockdowns and social distancing measures have deprived them of support; they are now experiencing more isolation, insecurity and malnourishment than ever.

Promoting prevention measures

Humanity & Inclusion teams have been conducting outreach work to limit the spread of the virus in Lomé and the city of Sanvee Condji. Between April 2021 and February 2022, Humanity & Inclusion’s teams implemented the following:

• Installed public showers to help promote and facilitate hygiene measures for an average of 210 people a day; more than 80,000 showers were taken
• Nearly 16,000 people participated in awareness-raising sessions, learning how to protect themselves and others from the virus
• 1,000 informational posters on Covid-19 prevention and vaccination were produced and distributed
• More than 25,000 face masks and 15,000 containers of hand sanitizer were distributed during outreach activities
• More than 8,000 hygiene kits were distributed, containing hand sanitizer, face masks, toothpaste, a tooth brush, soap and a sponge, as well as menstrual pads
• Around 100 peer educators were trained to share good practices and raise the awareness of others
• Almost 1,000 people were vaccinated

Providing medical and psychological support

Two health surveillance teams, each with a nurse, a psychologist and a midwife, conducted night rounds in Lomé. They provided medical and psychosocial care to over 15,000 people. Whenever possible, medical conditions, such as headaches, sores, rashes, malaria and sexually transmitted diseases, were treated directly on site. Thanks to these activities, more than 8,500 people accessed health care between April 2021 and February 2022.

As part of the outreach work organized by Humanity & Inclusion in Togo, more than 4,500 people were given mental health and psychosocial support.

"We provide unhoused people with psychological support because they are a sector of the population that feels vulnerable and neglected,” explains Issa Afo, a psychologist for Humanity & Inclusion. “When we offer them specialized services that are otherwise inaccessible to them, they feel seen. It is part of Humanity & Inclusion's mission to give hope to people who feel forgotten.”

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In Lomé, the capital of Togo, COVID-19 restrictions have made the lives of homeless people even more difficult—many of which are children and single mothers. Humanity & Inclusion’s teams visit the streets at night to assist them as their precarious living conditions have worsened. We recently checked in with one of Humanity & Inclusion’s staff members Eli Koffi Afossogb who shares more about our outreach in Lomé:

Assisting the homeless

Humanity & Inclusion launched a series of actions to promote the basic hygiene of homeless people in Lomé and supply them with food aid, and to help reassure the rest of the population about their state of health. In the future, our actions will include opening two centers for the most vulnerable, including children, isolated women, and people with disabilities, where they can get a health check and psychosocial support. Two mobile teams visit neighborhoods at night to provide consultations. Our goal is to help 3,000 people.

Earning an income doing odd jobs & begging

At least 15,000 people live on the streets of Lomé, a city of two million inhabitants. Many are children, teenagers, and single mothers with young children. Before the pandemic, they often earned money doing odd jobs at the Grand Marché in Lomé, such as carrying groceries or parcels for customers or traders. Begging was an important source of income for them, enabling them to just about survive.

Businesses on lockdown

As a result of the curfew and the restrictions put in place from March to May to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the Grand Marché was closed and the homeless lost their source of income. Although the restrictions were lifted in June, the recovery has been slow. There are fewer odd jobs to do. People who are afraid of them because they see them as potential vectors of disease are more reluctant to give them money when they beg, leading to a serious deterioration in their living conditions.

Not enough to eat

Restaurants were also forced to close for two months. Many homeless people used to eat what restaurants threw out. Only some of the restaurants have reopened, leading to a spike in cases of undernourishment.

Desperate & overwhelmed children

Some homeless people have been forced from the places where they used to sleep. Before the curfew, a group of children aged between nine and 15-years-old used to sleep near the post office. Now they spend the night on the pavement. Some are at risk of sexual abuse. We have seen children overwhelmed by fear and despair.

Focus on the most vulnerable 

As COVID-19 takes aim at our planet's most vulnerable neighbors, Humanity & Inclusion donors ensure that people with disabilities, people with injuries from conflict, children, women, and especially older people have the information--and even the soap--they need to stay healthy. Learn more about Humanity & Inclusion's vast COVID-19 response.

Begin a monthly gift today to help sustain this work and reach as many people as possible.

Following multiple bouts of severe malaria, Sougleman, 8, lost much of her sense of hearing and ability to speak. “Despite the medical care, my daughter was left with permanent disabilities,” says Nagwabe, Sougleman’s father. “Suddenly, she could not hold an object with her hands like she used to. She did not hear much anymore and she was no longer able to speak.”

Once one of the most talented students in her class in Tandjoaré, Togo, Sougleman had to leave school for more than a year because of her illness. At home, she could not communicate with her family and she was totally dependent on others. However, her father, also a teacher, believed in her ability to go back to school and succeed in her studies.

Thanks to an inclusive education project launched by Humanity & Inclusion and its partner, Educate A Child, Sougleman was able to return to school. She received lessons in sign language and is being mentored Damipi Lamboni, a special needs teacher who works with children with hearing and intellectual disabilities.

Lamboni tutors students and helps them with homework. He also trains teachers in sign language so that they can communicate directly with students without hearing. This support had a huge impact in the classroom for students like Sougleman.

"I am very pleased to see positive changes in Sougleman,” says her teacher Koffi Kombate. “She is more involved during lessons and better included by her classmates. In many ways, she is ahead of many of the students without disabilities.”

"My wish is that she continues and succeeds in her school career,” says Sougleman’s father. “I am very optimistic.”

In addition to supporting special needs teachers like Damipi Lamboni, Humanity & Inclusion and its partner Educate a Child help children with disabilities and their families by connecting them with rehabilitation services, medical care, and other support. The organization also works with the government and local communities to promote the inclusion of children with disabilities in school.

Train a teacher to support an inclusive classroom.

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Following multiple bouts of severe malaria, Sougleman, 8, lost much of her sense of hearing and ability to speak. “Despite the medical care, my daughter was left with permanent disabilities,” says Nagwabe, Sougleman’s father. “Suddenly, she could not hold an object with her hands like she used to. She did not hear much anymore and she was no longer able to speak.”

Once one of the most talented students in her class in Tandjoaré, Togo, Sougleman had to leave school for more than a year because of her illness. At home, she could not communicate with her family and she was totally dependent on others. However, her father, also a teacher, believed in her ability to go back to school and succeed in her studies.

Thanks to an inclusive education project launched by Humanity & Inclusion and its partner, Educate A Child, Sougleman was able to return to school. She received lessons in sign language and is being mentored Damipi Lamboni, a special needs teacher who works with children with hearing and intellectual disabilities.

Lamboni tutors students and helps them with homework. He also trains teachers in sign language so that they can communicate directly with students without hearing. This support had a huge impact in the classroom for students like Sougleman.

"I am very pleased to see positive changes in Sougleman,” says her teacher Koffi Kombate. “She is more involved during lessons and better included by her classmates. In many ways, she is ahead of many of the students without disabilities.”

"My wish is that she continues and succeeds in her school career,” says Sougleman’s father. “I am very optimistic.”

In addition to supporting special needs teachers like Damipi Lamboni, Humanity & Inclusion and its partner Educate a Child help children with disabilities and their families by connecting them with rehabilitation services, medical care, and other support. The organization also works with the government and local communities to promote the inclusion of children with disabilities in school.

Photo: Renovation of the pharmaceutical storage unit at Tabligbo district hospital, Togo.

HI is improving health facilities for pregnant women and newborns in the maritime region of Togo. Thanks to these interventions and others, neonatal mortality is expected to fall by 20% by the end of 2019.

In Togo, the majority of pregnant women and newborn babies do not have access to appropriate healthcare during pregnancy, delivery and the early years. Sadly, the consequences can be fatal—the infant mortality rate in Togo is high, particularly in the maritime region, and 398 in 100,000 mothers die as a result of complications during childbirth.

Currently, many women have to travel long distances to reach the nearest health facility. And when they arrive, they find expertise and access to medication is often unavailable. As a result, women are deterred from attending pre-natal appointments, reducing the chances for health actors to provide basic care, and to detect any concerns with how the baby is developing or how the mother’s health is faring.

Funding from the French Development Agency (AFD) has allowed HI to invest in the renovation of ten health centers in the maritime region of Togo. Pictured is the pharmaceutical storage unit at Tabligbo district hospital, where simple improvements to the security and quality of the building allow the hospital to store and prescribe all necessary medicines to support the maternity unit.

Across the ten centers, many different adaptations have been made, from increasing the number of toilets and making them accessible to people with disabilities, to increasing the number of maternity rooms to 31, up from 3. The project also provides training for health center staff to ensure that all essential maternity care can be correctly administered.

The project is due to run until 2019, at which point HI aims for neonatal mortality in the maritime region to drop by 20% and maternal mortality by 25%.

In many low-income and middle-income countries, only 5%-15% of people who require assistive devices, including artificial limbs, have access to them. In areas that are remote or dangerous, specialized health professionals can be scarce and materials expensive. Poorly made or unadjusted, artificial limbs can make life uncomfortable for patients by causing skin sores, pressure wounds, and muscle fatigue.

Since 2012, Handicap International has been improving the school enrollment and attendance of 170,000 children with disabilities in nine West African countries through the “Promoting the Full Participation of Children with Disabilities in Education” (APPEHL) project. Sandra Boisseau, who coordinates APPEHL from Dakar, Senegal, explains what the organization is doing to remove obstacles to education for these children.

Standing at the front of the class, Moussifa patiently recites the words written in chalk on the blackboard, words familiar to every child who is learning to read: “This morning, Aliou went to school. In his bag there is a pen, a notebook, a pencil, a slate, a pencil, and a book. His mother is happy.”

Disability Inclusive Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Resources and Publications

Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All: Disability Inclusion from Theory to Practice

A comprehensive guideline which explores key concepts in disability inclusion, inclusive SRHR programmatic approaches and technical areas of iSRHR
Publication Date: March 2022
Author: Humanity & Inclusion

Step Towards Disability Inclusive Sexual Reproductive Health: Learnings from WISH2Action Project

Publication Date: August 2021
Compiled & Edited by: Faruk Ahmed Jalal; Esrat Jahan; Md. Tareq Mahmud; Md. Rakibul Islam; Md. Mazedul Haque; Samira Naher Tazreen

Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights Information and Services: Perspectives of women and girls with disabilities in Uganda and Bangladesh

Qualitative research that explores barriers and enablers to accessing SRHR for women and girls with disabilities
Publication Date: August 2021
Authors: Access... | Humanity & Inclusion
Research Author: ThinkPlace

Learning from a disability-inclusive sexual reproductive health and rights program (WISH2ACTION)

A compendium of lessons learned and best practices from across nine key themes related to disability inclusion and SRHR from the WISH2ACTION Program
Publication Date: July 2021
Author: Humanity & Inclusion
Other languages: French | Portuguese

SOP | Standard Operating Procedure on Disability Inclusive Family Planning and Sexual Reproductive Health Services

Publication Date: June 2021
Developed by:  Clinical Contraception Services Delivery Program;  Directorate General of Family Planning; Ministry of Health & Family Welfare (MOHFW)
Drafted by:  Shirin Akhter, Consultant; DGFP and Chairman, Women with Disabilities; Development Foundation (WDDF)
Supported by:  United Nations Population Fund
Reviewed by: Technical Working Group on disability inclusive; SOP & Humanity & Inclusion (HI) 

Disability Inclusive Sexual and Reproductive Health (2020)

Humanity & Inclusion promotes Sexual Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) of people with disabilities and vulnerable populations in development and fragile settings. View the flier here.

Policy Brief: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights of Women and Young Persons with Disabilities in China

Publication date: 2019
Developed by: HI and UNFPA
Author: Dr. Alessandra Aresu

Chapter 19: When Sexuality Meets Disability: Experiences, Attitudes and Practices from China

Publication Date: 2019
Authors: Dr. Alessandra Aresu and Dr. Muriel Mac-Seing

HIV & Disability in West Africa: A Combined Analysis of 4 Studies Conducted in Burkina Faso, Niger, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde (2019) 

(Only available in French) Humanity & Inclusion works to ensure that no one is forgotten. This research paper responds to the call of UNAIDs and ensuring that no one is forgotten in the response to the epidemic. This paper includes four studies which seek to better understand the situation by HIV-related situation of disabled men and women living in West Africa. View the paper in French here.

Seeing the invisible: Sexuality-related knowledge, attitudes and behavior of children and youth with disabilities in China (2019)

Young people with disabilities have the same right to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) as their peers without disabilities, but their needs and rights are often overlooked. The findings of this study, which was initiated by UNESCO and Humanity & Inclusion, aims to provide evidence to support decision-making by government agencies, educators, development workers and other relevant stakeholders regarding developing and implementing disability-inclusive SRH and sexuality education policies and program for young people in China. View the report here.

AIDS and disability: Just not good enough (2015)

People with disabilities are living with HIV. This paper explains why they must be included in virus prevention education, provided access to treatments, and rehabilitation. What's more, people living with HIV are not receiving proper rehabilitation care as the virus causes impairments. View the article here.

Inclusive and integrated HIV and AIDS programming (2012)

This policy paper describes Humanity & Inclusion’s mandate and values as applied to the theme of inclusive and integrated HIV and AIDS programming. View report here and brief format here.

OTHER RESOURCES

Mental Health & Psychosocial Support (2019)

Since 1982, Humanity & Inclusion has worked in more than 30 countries to respond to the mental health and psychosocial needs of people facing humanitarian crises and/or living in precarious contexts. Our teams promote optimal mental health and foster social participation in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. View the flier here.

Kisumu County sexual & reproductive health strategy 2019-2024

This Kisumu County strategy outlays the principles, objectives and actionable activities that the Department of Health and Sanitation of the County Government of Kisumu, Kenya commits to undertake in order to provide the highest attainable standards of health; particularly sexual and reproductive health. View the strategy here.

Community mental health: Theory, practices, and perspectives (2018)

Mental health problems are commonplace and affect more than one in four people worldwide. They are responsible for a quarter of all disabilities. This document aims to provide a basis for exploring these concepts as part of more in-depth work, including an update of the 2011 mental health framework document. View the document here.

Protection Against Violence Based on Disability, Gender, Age (2019)

Humanity & Inclusion works to prevent violence based on disability, gender and age and its disabling consequences in development and fragile settings, as well as to provide holistic care for survivors of violence, exploitation and abuse. HI’s goal is to ensure that people with disabilities and other at-risk groups are less exposed to violence and can live in dignity, independently, and with control over their own lives. View the flier here.

Non-communicable diseases: Prevention and Detection (2019)

Humanity & Inclusion promotes the awareness raising, prevention, early detection, and care management of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory diseases, and diabetes in development and fragile settings View the flier here.

Road safety: Focus on vulnerable users (2015)

Road safety is a growing development and public health issue. Globally, road crashes are close to becoming one of the first five causes of death, and non-fatal injuries heavily impact on disability. Indeed, each year, road crashes kill 1.25 million people and injure as many as 50 million others. View the briefing paper here.

Diabetes and Other Cardiovascular Risk Factors (2012)

This document is intended to provide guidance and a framework for each stage of the project cycle for projects tackling the theme of diabetes and other cardiovascular risk factors. View report here and brief format here.

Santé mentale communautaire et violences liées au genre dans la Province Ouest du Rwanda (2012)

A report on community mental health and gender-based violence in Rwanda. View report here and brief format here. (In French)

Mental Health in Post-Crisis and Development Contexts (2011)

This policy paper describes Humanity & Inclusion’s actions, choices and commitments towards mental health in post-crisis and development contexts. View report here and brief format here.

Diabetes Prevention and control projects in countries with limited resources (2009)

This analysis paper presents the ‘know-how’ acquired by Humanity & Inclusion in its diabetes prevention and control projects. View report here.

Policy Paper on Psychosocial Interventions in Lebanon (2008)

A policy paper that presents a design for a national plan on psychosocial interventions, aiming to develop and promote the national plan established during the July 2006 war. View report here.

As It Is: Research Findings on the Knowledge, Attitude, Practice and Access to HIV and AIDS Information and Services Amongst Persons with Disability (2007)

Scientifically gathered information concerning the knowledge, attitude and practice among people with disabilities in areas surrounding HIV and AIDS. View report here.