By Phillip Kurata
Staff Writer
Washington — A young community activist in Togo, Koffi Amegbo Nomedji, believes that his participation in President Obama’s Forum with Young African Leaders in Washington August 3–5 will spur his work in developing his homeland.
“I will build strong relationships with other young African leaders, and from them I will learn to increase youth involvement in public affairs,” he told America.gov. “I hope to empower queens [women leaders] in rural communities to apply democracy and to lead … their communities to enforce women’s rights. In the long term, I expect a real partnership between the United States and my country to promote a wide range of programs in education and reform in sectors like health and agriculture,” he added.
Nomedji, program director of a nonprofit, ALAFIA, focuses particular attention on improving the lives of widows and their children in rural villages. Traditionally, widows are forced to undergo months of enforced mourning without engaging in farming or trading after the passing of their husbands. Following the mandated period of bereavement, widows typically are pressured to marry male relatives of their late husbands, according to Nomedji. The months of inactivity during mourning leave the widows and their children impoverished, and the forced marriages increase the widows’ exposure to HIV/AIDS, Nomedji added.
Nomedji goes into rural areas carrying the message that widows today can do things differently than in the past. “Working for ALAFIA and cooperating with community leaders, I have contributed to the eradication of these [traditional] practices in 21 villages in Togo,” Nomedji said.
Beyond working on behalf of widows and their children, Nomedji and his fellow workers teach basic notions of anti-corruption, civil rights, voter education and how to hold elected officials accountable.
“The citizen doesn’t know that he has the right to control public spending and to ask where the money is going. The lack of education is an obstacle to democracy and to women and youth involvement in public affairs,” he said. Computer skills, microlending, health education and agricultural training also figure prominently in the programs that Nomedji directs. “We have trained and helped more than 1,500 women and youths, and we are still training others,” he said.
Nomedji said that President Obama’s speech in Ghana a year ago has had a beneficial impact on Togo’s political system. He said Togo’s presidential election this year was judged fair by international observers, and for the first time a woman candidate entered the race. He said that people are entering politics at a younger age than in the past.
When Nomedji is an old man 50 years from now, he envisions a Togo where “my children and grandchildren will have easy access to education, health and jobs and where HIV/AIDS and drug abuse will be forgotten nightmares.” |
