Interview with “Maman Confort”, SOS Mother

“My name is Confort Tchamdja Essoyoméwé. I am 54 and I am an SOS mother at SOS Children’s Village Kara in Togo, Victory house. I started here with a six months’ internship then I was entrusted the house with five children. It was in November 1985. Today I have four girls and two boys from six to eleven years old.

Being an SOS mother is for me a calling. It is about conveying affection to the children who were fostered to you. I care for them every day with joy, I raise them and I guide them in order to lead them to an autonomous life. 

I am two years before retirement now and the memories of my early years here come back to me. Of course, I remember my first family: Gabriel, Marie-Claire, David, Joseph. Then arrived Adama, Ibrahim and Miriam. All of them are working now and it makes me proud. I bear in mind with great emotion the first steps of every single of the 27 children who grew up in my house.

Today, three of my children are students, one is learning tailoring, another one is a master mason, and the others are still on school benches. We have kept a strong links and we have even created a Victory group on social media."