MEET MARK AND NICOLE KENNELL. They are American missionaries in Kara, Togo, which is a French-speaking country in West Africa. They have been our connection for Bakery Project 2011. Mark and Nicole work with local AIDS clinics to strengthen programming and spread awareness of the resources and options that face Togolese people who have contracted AIDS. In their many years living in Togo, they have learned French and Kabiye (the local tribal language), planted and encouraged many churches, and they have built genuine relationships with villages in the countryside surrounding Kara. On their suggestion and under their guidance, Lifebread built a bakery in 2011 in Lassa Tchou, one of the villages in which Mark and Nicole have worked and planted a church.
This is the bakery that was built in Lassa Tchou. In 4 weeks' time, Lifebread planned and constructed a bakery with the capacity to produce 700 loaves of bread each day. Shown here are the two oil drum ovens and one traditional Togolese oven. All three are built from home made bricks and sealed with a coating of clay, which is plentiful in the soil of this region of Togo.
In addition to constructing the bakery, Lifebread's 5 interns taught 2 weeks worth of food sanitation, cleanliness, basic business strategy, and marketing techniques to the group of women. In a culture where women are valued little and few are given the chance to finish primary school, this daily act of sitting under the village meeting tree and attending classes was an incredible way to empower the women and build the self-confidence to take on a business. It also gave them the opportunity to plan their various roles such as purchasing, kneading, baking, marketing, and money-management.
On June 4, 2011, Lifebread awarded certificates of completion to the women of the group. We also gave each of them their own chef's coat and hat. What followed was a village-wide party, honoring the women, that will be remembered for years to come.
The best news is that the bakery has made money for the women from day one. The money from selling their first batch of bread paid back the cost of the ingredients and left behind a 46% net profit. The bakery, called Pain de Vie (French for "Bread of Life"), has effectively created 20 jobs and brought a practical outlet for the church in Lassa Tchou to share the love of Christ, the true Bread of Life, with neighboring villages in central Togo.
Lifebread's summer 2011 interns were in charge of planning and setting up this bakery. They spent one month in Togo. Read more about the Lifebread internship.
