The TouKoum Foundation is in memory of my late father, TouKoumnogo Mathieu Kabore.
My late father was born in the 1940s, due no government and him and none of his siblings being born in a hospital, we are unsure of the exact year. He is the second born into family of 13 kids, in which only 7 survived childbirth. My father was born in the era when this area of West Africa was just a colony controlled by the French. During this time child slavery and child abduction were very prevalent. Children were kidnapped and enrolled by force into training school to help with the French with different labor requirements. Most of the time those children ended up never seeing their loved ones again.
To avoid this fate, my father’s family along with many other families in the village, hid their children in random farms throughout the countryside. Due to these dire circumstances none of the children attended school. My father became a teenager in age of much global conflict in order to avoid being forced into the Army and shipped out to fight in foreign war-torn countries, he fled to the Ivory Coast.
He worked on various farms in Ivory Coast countryside before arriving in Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast. Here he worked a variety of low skilled jobs. Making a small wage to care for my mother and me. When his dad passed away in the 1980s even though the country was in a revolution to free the countries rules from France, he decided to move back to Burkina Faso with his small family. He then became a driver for the government and held that position until he retired. He and his wife also welcomed 4 more children over the years.
My father constantly told me that he was doing these jobs because of his lack of education and that he sleeps with an empty stomach often in order to pay school fees for my siblings and me. Education was always his priority for his children. All 5 children have received high school diplomas and all currently have or are receiving higher level education. My dad passed away without being able to enjoy his children and their successes. And he has missed getting to spend time with his grandchildren.
He would be so proud to that something as great as this Foundation could come from his life. He worked so hard to give his family all he could to ensure their success. Even while having to sacrifice his own livelihood. We hope to honor his memory by helping the country he loved.
Doing the right thing,
at the right time.
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