5) Description of health product/service offering: Our organization (OPIC-TOGO) is engaged for Districts development. It sensitizes the youth which is prey to some diseases like AIDS and educates the population against environmental pollution.

It is indispensable to think about environment of secondary towns of Togo . Often, the government priority in matters of environment is centered only on Lome, the capital. That is the reason why OPIC-TOGO chose some secondary towns to shelter this present project . The population of these towns is increasing and the obstacles like poverty grow with for corollary misery, infant and youthful mortality, maternal mortality.

The project plans to have a healthy environment in order to solve the problems of endemic and epidemic diseases and create jobs for youth.

The approach has been chosen for several reasons :

- Eradication of some diseases caused by environmental degradation ; - Wastes elimination : plastics, and worn battery, - Introduction of collective discipline in households - Holding the immediate surroundings of the houses in a healthy environment - Contribution for creation of job with for consequence, eradication of poverty These secondary towns are prey to some diseases coming from household refuse and faeces. The refuse and human saddles are thrown to the immediate surroundings of the houses. If one does not find solutions suitable to this problem, epidemics will devastate an important part of the population. The intermediate dumps and the public latrines management will allow to solve the following problems : 1- Pollution of environment under the win effect ; 2- Stain of underground water by infiltration of micro- organisms ; 3- Development of mosquitoes larval lodgings, sources of malaria ; 4- Domestic flies proliferation source of cholera.

6) Description of innovation: Our approach is innovative because there is not in Togo a specific program for secondary towns related to the household refuse management by the intermediate dumps and the environment safeguard by public latrines. In fact, the sorting system at the base with separation of non and biodegraded waste, the compost which can be used in agriculture are some of this project innovations.

Also the intermediate dumps and the public latrines management are associated with education for health, the townsman culture for good citizenship and the urban life.

The education team intervenes in 3 places : - Households : Education is intended for the benefits that one can have from a clean environment by suitable talks and sketches. - Schools : The message is concise and accompanied by posters - Public places: The population follows the presentation of periodically organized sketches which treat healthfulness an hygiene. The strategy is a means to attain a high degree of the population participation for new decisions of environment purification.

7) Operational model: To achieve the objective, the households need to be informed, sensitized and motivated with a new change of behavior favorable for health. An emergency is elaborated to reinforce the role of public health services.

The latrines are built in popular quarters ; The intermediate dumps are built ; the wagons drove by strength of arm pass from house to house in order to insure the collect of household refuse and throw them on the intermediate dumps. The sorting system at the base is instituted. The team charged knows waste which will be incinerated, put in the ground in order to make compost.

8) Human resources: A part from OPIC-TOGO staff management (4), we have the following teams: - Household refuse management team (3) - Public latrines management team (3) - Education team: composed by 1 High-level Technician of Medical Genius, 1 Hygiene Assistant, 1 Nurse.

9) Key operational partnerships: The partners include: The Municipal Government; Non- governmental organizations that work collaboratively to reach all segments of the community; The youth associations in the area.

10) Financial Sustainability

          • Fees charged to clients?: Yes

          • How do you assure affordability?: The project is like a Company which will generate profits to insure its sustainability.

At the end of each month, each profit household for household refuse collect pays some money. Whoever come to put himself at eases in the latrines also pays. The amount is fixed as soon as the infrastructures are installed with the population. With other income-generating like compost sales, the project will be sustainable.

          • Earned incomes as a percentage of operating costs: 100

          • Other funding sources: As per 10a

          • Strategy for long-term sustainability: A part from health education, OPIC-TOGO is committed for development by sustainable projects for technology transfer by training manufactures and assisting the youth association in secondary towns to promote technologies like compost at a price that ensures a profit for them and a benefit for the end-user. It will take 2 to 3 years and intensive publicity and promotion to establish a mass of demand of use of compost as manure by agriculturists in order to reduce the fertilizer importation in the area. The objective of this project is to demonstrate that from household refuse we can make locally manure which constitute economical solution for agriculture.

11) Current and Future Impact

          • Total number of clients: 4,000

          • Clients in the past year: 1,500

          • Percentage of low-income clients: 100

          • Impact: 1- Eradication of periodic epidemics (cholera) ; 2- Eradication of endemic disease (malaria) resulting from the lack of hygiene; 3- Eradication of household refuse, faeces and the pollution of the immediate surroundings of the houses ; 4- Production of compost.

          • Overall "market": Many secondary towns want to profit from our ideas. They send all the time their demands.

12) Scaling up strategy

          • Stage of the initiative: Start Up stage.

          • Expansion plan: To reach out to around 15 districts in 3 regions of Togo.

13) Policy change: The right to health is an inalienable human right being. Consequently all those who hold knowledge in development and safeguard of the environment must divulge them

14) Origin of the initiative: This project was conceptualized some three years back for OPIC-TOGO. We realized that the government didn’t think about the secondary towns environment. Theses towns are prey to some diseases coming from household refuse and faeces. ADZONA Kodzo Roger (Executive Director: OPIC-TOGO), ATIAMON Komla Toussaint (Project Officer: OPIC-TOGO) jointly decided the modalities for the project. The first district chosen was Ave.

Contact Information:
Atiamon  Komla Toussaint
Project Officer
OPIC-TOGO (Organisation pour la Promotion d’Initiatives Communautaires au Togo)
(NGO)
P. O. BOX : 80958
Togo
Tel: +228 914 82 89
Fax: -
Email: opictog@yahoo.fr
Website: -