Togolese-American Soldier learns skills to help home country

FORT HOOD, Texas - Kossivi Kokou kicks a soccer ball on a neatly mowed field in the thick Texas heat. Wearing a new green soccer jersey, he shoots at a steel-framed net, luxuries he once only dreamed of having as a child.

He has earned a spot on the All-Army team as one of the service's top players. He competes in the 2025 Armed Forces Soccer Championship here on the western side of Fort Hood, a sprawling military post in central Texas. He sprints on turf tightly marked with white chalk under bright stadium lights, a far cry from the streetball soccer he grew up playing in Lome, Togo's largest city.

As a member of the All-Army Soccer team, he represents the Army at the service level in a joint military athletic tournament, an opportunity open to eligible Soldiers.

Kokou's role as an Army soccer player and Soldier reflect a larger purpose. He serves his adoptive nation but wants to bring the skills and knowledge he learned in the Army as a water treatment specialist back to his native country.

He plans to join the efforts to combat the country's water shortage by bringing freshwater stations to rural villages, especially children who grow up without a clean drinking supply. Kokou and his family built the first of what he hopes will be many new water stations in the village of Abobo. He plans to post a second water pump in another village by the end of 2025.

"My goal is to support the people and the kids who don't have the window to have everything they need," Kokou said. "Because growing up I know life was hard... I know how hard it is when you don't have something to eat or can't afford what you want."

As he climbed the Army's ranks, he saved money to move his family in Togo from their small house in the urban sprawl of Lome to the rural village of Abobo.

Later, Kokou brought his father and his son to live with him in the states. Now a 29-year-old staff sergeant stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado, he rents in a house near the post with his eight-year-old son, Vilano.

As Kokou's life changed in America, his homeland never left his thoughts, he said. Eight years have passed since Kokou left the low-lying plains of Togo's southern coast.

Kokou emigrated from Togo in June 2017 carrying one suitcase and one backpack, bound for central Illinois. He left home to provide for family and later his son, and the boundless opportunities he saw across the Atlantic.

After growing up in a lower income household, the Army brought him hope, and a chance at a professional career he didn't have in a nation of 9.5 million, steady income and the opportunity to pursue a college degree. Togo, West African nation that sits on the Gulf of Guinea between Ghana and Benin, struggles with a lack of skilled labor, unemployment and widespread poverty.

In the Army, he found camaraderie among Soldiers from all walks of life, like his teammates on the All-Army soccer team.

But he longed to help Togo.

As a teen, he never forgot what he witnessed in his mother's hometown: Children bathing in the river and then having to drink the same water when thirsty. Like many small villages in West Africa, his native country Togo suffered from a water crisis. Residents lacked clean drinking water to sustain daily life.

Most residents don't drive or own cars. So, they must walk the five to six miles to the nearest water pump.

Driven by a higher power

When Kokou walked into a recruiter's office in Des Moines,

Iowa in the fall of 2018, he thought God's hand had intervened, he said.

Two years since he had migrated to the U.S., Kokou had been living in central Illinois and searching for a way to help Togo. Now the Army presented him with a golden opportunity.

The Army recruiter said he had an opening for the very military occupational specialty he needed to make a difference in Togo, a water treatment specialist.

For the Army, a 92W manages and maintains a freshwater supply for Soldiers. In a forward deployed operation, they could be charged with delivering water to a platoon. For Kokou, he learned valuable knowledge that could help bring freshwater to many Togolese.

He decided his first step towards aiding his home country would be to provide drinking water for the children of Abobo. He hired local workers to build the outdoor water pump.

In the Army, Kokou learned to operate as a member of a team, values he wants to bring to his homeland. "We train as one and we fight as one," he said.

Togolese living in the country's rural areas often have limited clean supplies of water available. According to the Othering and Belonging Institute at the University of California, Togo ranks as one of the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change and drought.

The research revealed that rural communities in Togo suffer from poverty levels twice as high as urban areas.

"Some far towns from the city, they don't always have access to drinking water," he said. "The water is sometimes dirty. They always have issues with water."

Nonprofit organizations have started projects to bring more clean, drinkable water to the greater Lome region and other areas. Kossivi wanted to become part of the relief efforts.

"I have this knowledge that I can pass it down to my people," said Kokou, who became a U.S. citizen in 2020.

He said that in Togo they don't have access to the same tools but have alternatives and materials to work with, such as chlorine supplies. His goals for helping improve life in Bogo extends to recreation and sport.

He began playing soccer in the streets of Lome with other children kicking an old worn soccer ball. They'd put together a makeshift goalpost using stones or whatever they could find. They ran in the gravel often barefoot or wearing worn out shoes. He rose through Togo's junior levels even qualifying to become a part of the country's junior national team.

But he put his soccer ambitions on hold when he moved to the U.S. Kokou first discovered He later continued playing the sport as a Soldier in the U.S. Army after enlisting in 2018, joining the All-Army men's soccer team.

Now he has plans to one day construct a soccer field for children, complete with turf and goal posts. He also wants to fund soccer shoes and soccer balls.

Kossivi said that when villagers dig water wells, they collect what appears to be clean water but when tested actually contains hazardous materials.

He promises to return to Togo and build more water stations in rural towns, areas where Togolese desperately need clean water.

Between his Army commitments and college courses, he Facetimes with family four to five times a week. He said he often speaks with family on how they can improve life in Togo. He also checks on the maintenance of the Abobo water station.

He still wears his traditional Togolese agbada, or colorful tunic worn by men during his calls with family.

He plans to build another station by the end of 2025.

"My plan is to make or at least have one port of water in each town," Kokou said. "It starts day by day with one."