Le Complexe Scolaire Adventiste D’Anfame (CS2A) is the Adventist school in Lomé, Togo. It includes the only Adventist middle school and one of the only two adventist elementary schools in all of Togo. At one time there were six Adventist elementary schools throughout the country, but due to financial issues, most have closed, making CS2A nearly all that remains of Adventist education in Togo. There are currently 225 elementary students (including preschool) and 164 middle school students who study various subjects including Math, Biology, Physics, English, French, History, and Geography. Each class has about 40 students and between both the elementary and middle schools there are about 14 teachers.

The school is lacking in severely lacking in resources. All the teachers have at their disposal is a box of chalk, some pens, a small stack white paper, and a few very old text books. It is up to the students to buy their own text books and most are too poor to afford them. In my first week at the school, I heard several times from different teachers that the students cannot afford the books, and therefore cannot study. While talking with a few of my friends here in Togo they told me that It is not rare for there to be students in their early twenties trying to pass 9th grade. Unfortunately, the difficulties in education can be found in all of the schools throughout Togo.

Apart from the educational needs, the school building itself is incomplete. Only the first floor has been finished and their remains a lot of work to be done on the second floor which holds the middle school. Sand and rubble can be seen on the ground and the gray, unpainted walls leave the classrooms feeling very dark and somber. Needless to say this environment doesn’t exactly inspire academic excellence.

I believe that God has sent me to Togo as a student missionary, and I want to accomplish as much as I can for this school. The vision that I have is to raise enough money in order to create a library for the school, one that would have all of the books that the children need in order to perform at their best and various resources for the teachers to use to improve and update their teaching methods. I would also like to be able to start raising money for the completion of the school building. These two things together will add greatly to the overall quality of the school.