C2C Togo 2023 Book Drive : simplebooklet.com

CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATION 3| Child2Child Book Foundation has completed book drives in: Nigeria (2021), Ghana (2022 & 2023), and Togo (2023).children between the ages of 6 -15. This indicates the primary school enrollment rates are much higher than in secondary school, comparing 94.3% to 52.7%. Despite the higher enrollment rates, children are still failing out of school or repeating grades. Keeping this in mind, C2C partnered with l’Orphelinat La Solution to provide books to orphans across Togo that easily get overlooked. The journey from Accra, Ghana to Lome, Togo was quite an experience. The 3.5-hour road trip took more than 15-hours to complete which culminated in a rather adventurous border crossing which made our mission even more fulﬁlling. C2C visited l’Orphelinat La Solution in Togo, home to seventy-ﬁve children. We met with the Director, Mr. Mawussi, who explained the orphanage is home to two types of children, street children, which are children with absentee parents, and orphans, children with deceased parents. Our books would help further their education in both French and English. His commitment to helping Togolese youth showed through during this presentation, and when he The 2023 Book drive was a special initiative for Child2Child Book Foundation (“C2C”) on many levels. Being bilingual, we wanted to donate to a French speaking country. C2C’s partnership with Africa Reinsurance Foundation made this possible, with over 200 boxes of books donated to orphanages and schools in Togo. This was the ﬁrst time C2C donated French books, packed, and shipped from Books for Africa’s warehouse in Atlanta, Ga. All four of our founding members including a new member, Abi Sagna, were able to join in the work and enjoy the experience of sharing the joy of reading. Due to the proximity of Togo to Ghana, we also visited our previous recipients -Tarkwa Breman Girls’ School and the library we commissioned in 2022, Alice Abrokwa Appiah Library, in Kukurantumi, Ghana.  For our third consecutive book drive, C2C donated over 20,000 French and English books to orphanages and schools across Togo. Seated between Ghana and Benin, Togo is a small, French-speaking nation that is located on the West African coastline. One of the poorest countries in the world, Togo’s education is mandated for

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4 CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATION| Accra to Lome road trip.| Sedinam teaching origami.led us to a classroom we were as enthusiastic as ever to commence our event. It was an eventful day teaching origami, making bracelets with the older girls, and reading to the younger children. It was nice to speak with the older girls while making bracelets. We talked about our lives, education, and their future aspirations. As part of our ongoing efforts to address some of the challenges we see in the areas we visit, we donated clothes and shoes to the children at the orphanage.

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8 CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATIONThe last task of the day was to ﬁll the orphanage’s library with books, and this endeavor took the entire group’s effort. The older children carried the boxes from the drop off point to the library, and once there, everyone else opened and organized the books onto the shelves. By far, this moment is always the best part of any book drive. The looks of joy spread across childrens’ faces as they unload and ﬂip through the books we had gifted remain unparalleled. Although we only visited one orphanage during our time in Togo, l’Orphelinat La Solution will distribute the 20,000 books to orphanages throughout the country. After all the work done throughout the year, it is always nice to see the fruits of our labor. It reminds us of why we keep going! | Amirrah reading to a young boy.8 CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATION

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CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATION 11| Dinner at Hôtel 2 Février, Lome. (Left to Right) Azzarrée, Sedinam, Christelle and Alexandre Aquereburu, Abi, Amirrah & Eline.The following morning, we attended Church with Mr. Merveil Mawussi who is also a member of the family that established l’Orphelinat La Solution. He was our contact in Togo, and helpful during our border crossing saga. He also arranged the transportation of our books to the orphanage, and helped set up our book drive event. He introduced us to his congregation where we were warmly welcomed. We donated books to the children who attend the church and also did origami with the young children and beaded jewelry with the older girls. It was a great experience!We ended our time in Togo with dinner with Uncle Alexandre and Auntie Christelle who are long-time donors and who were also incredibly helpful with all our logistics in Togo. We also had the pleasure of meeting their lovely daughters, Maya and Ella. Thank you to our Tata and Oncle for all your support.

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12 CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATION Given Togo’s proximity to Ghana, we took the opportunity of being in the region to revisit and check in on two of our recipients from our 2022 book drive in Ghana. Tarkwa Breman Girls’ School (“TBGS”) in the Western Region of Ghana was established by Mr. Shadrack Frimpong, founder of nonproﬁt Cocoa-360, and a recipient of the 2015 President’s Engagement Prize from the University of Pennsylvania, this school is very dear to us. Mr. Frimpong, who grew up in Tarkwa Breman, said that due to superstitions and local beliefs, there was no emphasis on educating girls, and they fell prey to sexual abuse and unwanted pregnancies. He used the prize money to build a clinic and a school dedicated to girls. The school and clinic serve Tarkwa Breman and eight surrounding villages. We were very excited to donate over 7,000 books to their library in 2022, and this year, we added an additional 10,000 books!C2C worked with the young children in preschool, teaching math, english, coloring the Ghanaian ﬂag and singing nursery rhymes under the tree, our donated pencils were put to good use. Later in the day we started our arts and craft activities with older girls once they had completed their examinations and even the teachers joined in the fun making bracelets and earrings. Due to excessive mining in the area we had to shorten our stay because the river at the entrance of the village overﬂowed and the villagers were using canoes to cross. We were advised to leave immediately or be stranded in Tarkwa Breman indeﬁnitely. Seven days later we received conﬁrmation the river had subsided, and the books had ﬁnally arrived safely at the school. The children were excited about receiving new books to read and learn from!| Abi and students from Tarkwa Breman Girls’ School (“TBGS”).

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14 CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATION The Alice Abrokwa Appiah Library in Kukurantumi, Ghana was commissioned in 2022 by C2C to honor the ﬁrst female teacher in Kukurantumi who is also Sedinam and Eline Asase’s great grandmother! She was a pioneer of her time and has led the way for many young girls to get an education. C2C returned to Kukurantumi to visit the library which has ﬂourished. There was a ceremony in our honor to present us with kente stoles and introduce us to ten newly appointed board members who ensure the library’s sustainability. Our library has expanded to include an extra room and in total, contains approximately 20,000 books serving the vast community of Kukurantumi and its environs. Sedinam and Eline’s Great Grandmother would be very proud!| (Left to right) Sedinam, Azzarrée, Eline, Abi and Amirrah at Alice Abrokwa Appiah Library, Kukurantumi, Ghana.| Eline and students from Tarkwa Breman Girls’ School (“TBGS”).

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CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATION 17 In between working with the children, visiting schools, and crossing borders, we met with two very special women. First was Marcia Ashong-Sam, CEO of TheBoardroom Africa (“TBRA”). TBRA is the continent’s leading private membership network of women executives. We were invited to her lovely home in Accra. She shared her unique story with us and provided career advice. Another very special woman we met was the First Lady of Ghana, Her Excellency Rebecca Akufo-Addo. In October 2018, The Rebecca Foundation rolled out the Learning to Read, Reading to Learn project. This was to instill a culture of learning in children to enhance literacy. Some of the goals of the project were to build libraries across the country and introduce school and child-friendly programs to enable children to learn to read. It was our honor to donate 30 boxes of books to her foundation. We told her how we started our foundation and we were proud to support hers.This book drive was very challenging, the ﬂood at the entrance of Tarkwa Breman cut our visit short, three of our youngest members were locked in their room, our rented car from Ghana to Togo broke down several times during the journey, we almost got detained at the Togo border, the driver transporting our books to Togo quit at the border, we also had forgotten laptops and missing boarding passes, but above all, our | Standing - Abi, Family Dog, Eline, and Sedinam. Sitting - Azzarrée, Marcia and her son, and Amirrah.

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18 CHILD2CHILD BOOK FOUNDATIONbooks were delivered into the hands of eager children and C2C shared the joy of reading! With your support, our next book drive will be in the summer of 2024. We are partnering with Ms. Folly Bah Thibault, Lead Presenter at Al Jazeera and founder of Kesso Bah Foundation in Guinea-Conakry. Ms. Thibault is also the United Nations Champion for Education Cannot Wait. We will ship approximately 25,000 new French books to Conakry to support children who have been affected by school closures due to the December 2023 oil depot explosion.Your donation will be indispensable in shipping a container of French educational and leisure books to support vulnerable young girls pursue an education. We are hopeful that our books will bring children joy, excitement, and motivation to continue their education. We are yet to scratch the surface of the monumental task ahead of us. We would appreciate your partnership and donation on this impactful journey.Child2Child Book Foundation would like to extend our profound appreciation to all our donors, friends and family for supporting us on this journey. We are also grateful to our partners for being invaluable parts of our experience this summer. Honorable mentions to:• Africa Reinsurance Foundation for their donation to support our work in Togo.• Books for Africa for their partnership in making our dream a success.• The Mawussi family, who established the l’Orphelinat La Solution Orphanage in Togo.• Tarkwa Breman Girls’ School, Cocoa 360, Mr. Shadrack Frimpong, his father, Auntie Jane and the entire team at TBGS.• Special thanks to Mr. Christian Asante for the VIP service in Takoradi and Accra. • A special thank you to the board members and teachers at Alice Abrokwa Appiah Library who ensure the successful running of the library.• Another special thanks to Ms. Celestine Avi at Ghana Broadcasting Corporation for all her work behind the scenes and the coverage of the Kukurantumi event, and Ms. Pascaline Adadevoh for hosting us on Women’s Voice. Board of Trustees who are also our managers, chaperones, beloved uncle and mothers. We could not have had a successful project without you and your guidance.The Child2Child Book Foundation TeamTo Donate, please scan the QR code belowLove always

C2C Togo 2023 Book Drive

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