The Untold Story: Documenting the story of HIV care in Togo

Squeezed between Ghana and Benin, Togo is a small, West African nation that is often overlooked by the international community. Many people have never even heard of the country, even fewer can pinpoint it on a map. As a result, most are unaware of the desperate economic condition of the country and the distressing status of its public health infrastructure. My project aims to shed light on the conditions of Togo through telling the stories of HIV patients and caregivers, a group which includes some of the poorest, most stigmatized people in Togo, but also some of the most resilient and hopeful. This project will be carried out in partnership with Hope Through Health (HTH), a non-profit that provides comprehensive HIV care for patients in the north of Togo. I will be interviewing HTH’s staff and patients in order to capture not only the hardships and struggles they endure, but how personalized, community-based care has affected the lives of individuals. This project will assist HTH with 2 needs: (1) to provide media and stories that will allow HTH’s donors to better understand the context in which they work, which can help them generate more funding, and (2) to empower the patients and staff, as well as individuals outside the clinic, by providing an outlet for their voices to be heard internationally.