Lome, 27 October, 2020 / 8:05 pm (ACI Africa).
Close to 500 residents of Togo’s Archdiocese of Lomé have received COVID-19 prevention materials and food kits whose purchase was facilitated by Salesian Missions, the U.S. development arm of the Religious Institute of the Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB).
“Many people, both older and young, were supported by the donor funding,” the leadership of the U.S-based development agency says in a report shared with ACI Africa Tuesday, October 27.
Lady Donyon is among the beneficiaries of the Salesians’ initiative. A widow in her sixties, Lady Donyon lives in the district of Ablogamé, downtown Lomé in the home she had shared with her husband, the Salesians say in the October 27 report.
“To survive, she had been selling charcoal, but her late husband’s sons did not give her time to develop her business,” Salesian officials say in the report and add in reference to Lady Donyon, “Her only child who is with her has mental health struggles, which complicates the situation.”
Amid COVID-19 pandemic, Lady Donyon has been collecting water sachets for resale, with the help of one of her grandsons. When her other grandchildren come back from school, they head to the market to do odd jobs at a fee, SDB officials have reported.