French Togoland became Togo in 1960. Gen. Gnassingbe EYADEMA, installed as military ruler in 1967, continued to rule well into the 21st century. Despite the facade of multiparty elections instituted in the early 1990s, the government continued to be dominated by President EYADEMA, whose Rally of the Togolese People (RPT) party has maintained power almost continually since 1967. Togo has come under fire from international organizations for human rights abuses and is plagued by political unrest. While most bilateral and multilateral aid to Togo remains frozen, the EU initiated a partial resumption of cooperation and development aid to Togo in late 2004 based upon commitments by Togo to expand opportunities for political opposition and liberalize portions of the economy. Upon his death in February 2005, President EYADEMA was succeeded by his son Faure GNASSINGBE. The succession, supported by the military and in contravention of the nation's constitution, was challenged by popular protest and a threat of sanctions from regional leaders. GNASSINGBE succumbed to pressure and agreed to hold elections in late April 2005 which legitimized his succession.

- From the CIA World Fact Book Web Site, http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook

In 2005 The Daywalka Foundation partnered with La Conscience, a local ngo dedicated to fighting trafficking in children.  Founded in 1994, La Conscience educates and organizes rural communities and youth in Togo about human rights and democracy. The organization also publishes a newspaper (called "La Conscience") that focuses on various human rights issues and is written and produced entirely by young people. Despite Togo's poor infrastructure, this youth network created an innovative system that distributes 25,000 copies of "La Conscience" to more than half of the country's schools - a broader geographical reach than Togo's daily newspapers. The newspaper is a forum for the voices of Togolese youth. In April 2000, the newspaper received the "Press and Democracy in Africa Award" by the Tribune of Geneva in Switzerland.

Within recent years, La Conscience has set up five main program areas in which it carries out educational and awareness raising activities as well as training of volunteers, teachers and youth:

·                                 Promotion, protection and defense of basic human rights principles and education about democracy.

·                                 Women' rights. This program focuses on combating sexual harassment of girls, women's empowerment and awareness raising activities about the importance of girls education.

·                                 Children's rights. This project focuses the fight against trafficking in children, a problem that is rampant in West Africa.

·                                 HIV/AIDS prevention

·                                 The bi-weekly youth newspaper "La Conscience" covering human rights and democracy issues and topics on the Togolese youth' mind.

In order to educate people about these issues La Conscience has organized countless conferences and debates in churches, mosques, schools and in villages throughout the country. As a grassroots organization that works in remote areas through the help of several hundred volunteers of all different backgrounds, La Conscience is in close contact with the communities and knows their needs and challenges unlike many others. All the programs developed at La Conscience are set up in direct response to the communities, in particular the needs of Togo's youth. Through its HIV/AIDS prevention project La Conscience has trained more than 60 volunteers from all regions of Togo who will become trainers and educators on HIV prevention in their communities. In 2003, the organization opened a center for the rehabilitation of trafficked children - the first of its kind in Togo.
La Conscience currently has six full time and four part time employees and hundreds of volunteers.