To imagine Lomé, start with a bustling little city covered from head to toe in the red, sandy dust upon which it sits. Most of the humble buildings - corrugated iron sheds, earth huts and concrete structures - are in serious disrepair. This includes the hospitals which a Westerner would never dream of entering, should they be sick. In such places, many patients sleep on the floor and bribes are sometimes needed to access simple requirements such as oxygen; surely the result of pitiful wages.

Lomé lacks all of the infrastructures that form the backbone of the world that you know; a stable economy and ample employment opportunities, decent roads, sewerage and pollution control. There are no public toilets or garbage collection programs in this city. The streets serve for this purpose for the residents who, quiet simply, have no choice. For some people safe and reliable running-water can only be accessed at designated locations around the city and residents are thus forced to transport the daily water supply back to their house in large tubs which they carry on their heads.

As for the schools, imagine overcrowded classrooms where the student to teacher ratio can sometimes blow out in excess of 60:1. Fill these tiny classrooms with eager, hopeful, red-earth-stained children who have to overcome tremendous odds just to complete a high school education. The so-called "free" education in this city is well and truly unaffordable for many parents.

You now need to add to this city an AIDS epidemic, with some estimates indicating that 4.2% of the population are infected

For those willing, you could now look out of the nearest window and out onto the world that you know - a place that you probably hate from time to time. It probably seems like a paradise now. That's because it is. Perhaps you could start to question why it is, that some of us get to enjoy this "first world" membership, whilst the majority of the human race is denied this gold card. The answer to such a question is not a pretty one. It is, however, part of an essential acknowledgement that should be part of each and every step that we place on this earth