Community Management Committee Encourages Income Generating Activities through Fabric Dyeing Session

Story by Angie Rowe, Tostan Volunteer in Kolda, Senegal 

Our year-end fundraising campaign concludes today. Throughout this campaign, we have been highlighting different stories from Community Management Committees (CMCs) - democratically selected groups in each community trained in project development and management. CMCs plan and carry out local initiatives and truly lead the way in community development, providing inspiration as we head into the year 2013. Support their efforts by donating today and have your gift matched by The Greenbaum Foundation! 

Sikilo, a small community in the Kolda region of Senegal, completed Tostan's Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in June of 2012. The CMC remains active, engaging in activities such as trainings on soap making and fabric dyeing, community wide clean-ups, and community fund distribution. 

CMC members in Sikilo were trained in fabric dyeing to generate income for their community

In August, the CMC organized a fabric dyeing training, which was attended by all 17 members. During the training session participants learned how to mix dye, practiced fabric dyeing techniques, and discussed effective sale strategies. The fabric subsequently produced is sold in various markets throughout Kolda, providing necessary funds to support further development activities led by the CMC. 

Community Management Committees Encourage Education for All Community Members in Guinea

Story and photos by Julie Dubois, Assistant to the National Coordinator, Tostan Guinea

Our year-end fundraising campaign is going strong! This year, The Greenbaum Foundation will match every gift received, which means your impact will be instantly DOUBLED! 

As a part of our campaign, we will spotlight different stories from Community Management Committees (CMCs) - democratically selected groups in each community trained in project development and management. CMCs plan and carry out local initiatives, laying the foundation for community-led change and ensuring the sustainability of the Tostan program. Contribute to sustainable development by donating today!

“With solidarity, all is possible,” explains the CMC Coordinator Lansanna Souhmah in Brika, a village in lower Guinea.  Brika began the Community Empowerment Program in 2004, one of the first villages to participate in Tostan’s program in Guinea.  Joined by neighboring villages, Brika participated in the first public declaration for the abandonment of female genital cutting (FGC) and child/forced marriage in Guinea on June 9, 2008. Since that day the Community Management Committee (CMC) has continued to champion human rights in Brika as well as mobilize support in other communities for social change.

Members of the CMC and their children in Brika, Guinea

Education has completely transformed the residents of Brika.  Like many early Tostan partner communities, Brika participants did not benefit from the literacy and project management modules that were later incorporated as core elements of Tostan’s CEP.  Despite this, the CMC took the lead in establishing a learning center where, three times a week for the past several years, women and men have learned how to read and write in their national language.

Before the community of Brika began the CEP, community members did not send their children to school.  Education was not a priority, especially because the nearest school was located too far away.  Although Brika is about a mile from the school in Tougnifily, children had to take a detour of nearly eight miles to cross the river that intersects the two communities. The CMC raised awareness about the importance of education for each and every child, and the community became determined to build a bridge so that the children could easily travel to and from school. Now, every child in Brika receives formal education.  The CMC is even mobilizing once again to raise funds to reinforce the bridge, ensuring community access for years to come.

If you come across Brika children running across the bridge and ask them to tell you about their favorite subjects, you will hear girls’ answers filled with hope and ambition.  They dream of becoming ambassadors, social workers, and even journalists.  All of them recognize that their dreams would not be possible without education.  And the adults in the community agree that by abandoning child/forced marriage, girls will stay in school and have brighter futures.

For many children from Brika, they will be the first in their families to complete formal education.  For two junior high students, Mohammed Ali Camara and Abdoulaye Barry, schooling has opened the path for more opportunities.  They, along with many others, have a strong will to attend school and relish in the fact that they will decide their own futures.

Mohammed Ali Camara and Abdoulaye Barry will be the first
in their families to complete formal education

  
In countries where Tostan works, there are thousands of communities like Brika that have improved the lives of women, men, and children through their participation in Tostan’s proven model of nonformal education.  The CEP reinforces human rights, while CMCs take the lead on development projects that promote the well-being of every woman, man, and child in the community.  

A Community Management Committee Harnesses Solar Energy in Rural Guinea-Bissau

Story by Matt Boslego, Internal Communications Assistant, Tostan International 

Our year-end fundraising campaign is going strong! As a part of our campaign, we are highlighting different stories from Community Management Committees (CMCs) - democratically selected groups in each community trained in project development and management. CMCs plan and carry out local initiatives and truly lead the way in community development, providing inspiration as we head into the year 2013. Support their efforts by donating today or share this campaign with your friends and families.

 

Fatima Seidi and Awa Mané are trained in solar power maintenance

The village of Mambonco in rural Guinea-Bissau’s cashew-growing heartland is proud to have a primary school within its limits, offering public education to several hundred children from the surrounding area. As is the case in most of the country, children’s study time is drastically limited by the hours of daylight. Guinea-Bissau’s electricity infrastructure, though improving, rarely reaches rural populations.

The Community Management Committee (CMC) of Mambonco, in partnership with India’s Barefoot College, has been able to implement a solution: affordable solar power. Two CMC members, Fatima Seidi and Awa Mané, were trained on solar panel maintenance and installation in India. Today, they work with the village CMC to ensure that the panels stay in good condition and reach as many residents as possible. 

Residents pay the CMC a small monthly fee to rent a panel. The proceeds are kept in a fund which is used to support the solar engineer’s full-time work and to pay for replacement equipment. The additional revenue goes into the CMC’s community support fund, financing community development projects such as planting a community cashew orchard and lending money to small-business ventures in the village. 

Community Management Committees Ensure Sustainability: Village Cleanup in Mauritania

Story by Matt Boslego, Internal Communications Assistant, Tostan International 

Our year-end fundraising campaign has begun, and this year, the Greenbaum Foundation will match every gift received, which means your impact will be instantly DOUBLED! As a part of our campaign, we will spotlight different stories from Community Management Committees (CMCs) - democratically selected groups in each community trained in project development and management. CMCs plan and carry out local initiatives, laying the foundation for community-led change and ensuring the sustainability of the Tostan program. Contribute to sustainable development by donating today!

Created in 2011, the dynamic Community Management Committee (CMC) of Boghe Escal in Mauritania made extraordinary advancements during the past year thanks to participation in the Community Empowerment Program (CEP).  The CMC, which includes 17 democratically elected members (nine women, eight men), spread information through organized diffusion to almost every area of the community.  The CMC is responsible for everything from monitoring the vaccinations of children to promoting village cleanliness through education.
 
The CMC of Boghe Escal educates thousands of people through awareness-raising activities, which focus on topics including human rights, the harmful consequences of FGC and child/forced marriage, promotion of girls’ education, and the importance of birth registration.  These activities often use theater as a way to reinforce specific themes that participants study during the CEP—for instance how FGC can affect the health of girls and women and how to effectively and peacefully resolve disputes.
 
In addition to education, the CMC recently collaborated with the city to effectively remove trash from the village, creating a clean and safe environment for all the families. This is just one among many projects carried out by the CMC to develop their community.

A donation to Tostan today will give us the capacity to implement the CEP in 1,000 more communities by 2013—this means the creation of more CMCs that actively promote and implement development activities at the grassroots level.  Donate today!

Community Management Committees Ensure Improved Access to Healthcare in Rural Guinea

Story and photographs by Julie Dubois, Assistant to the National Coordinator at Tostan Guinea

Our year-end fundraising campaign has begun, and this year, the Greenbaum Foundation will match every gift received, which means your impact will be instantly DOUBLED! As a part of our campaign, we will spotlight different stories from Community Management Committees (CMCs) - democratically selected groups in each community trained in project development and management. CMCs plan and carry out local initiatives, laying the foundation for community-led change and ensuring the sustainability of the Tostan program. Contribute to sustainable development by donating today!

The renovated health center of Koba M'bendia.

Koba M’bendia is a community near Basse, Guinea that began Tostan’s holistic Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in 2005. As an essential part of the three-year program covering human rights, hygiene and health, problem solving, and project management, communities form Community Management Committees (CMCs). CMCs are 17-member leadership bodies designed to organize and carry out awareness-raising events and lead community development projects.

In the community of Koba M’bendia, the CMC succeeded in improving the health of their community by renovating and raising awareness about the local health center. Before the CEP, community members did not frequent the clinic. The health center was seen as the “property of the doctor” and community members considered the nurse a stranger. As soon as someone became sick, they preferred to be treated by the local healer with traditional or folk medicine.

After learning about health and hygiene in the CEP, such as germ transmission and common diseases, participants gained a better understanding of the importance of visiting a trained medical practitioner. Realizing that the clinic was in need of a renovation, CMC members began going door to door in Koba M’bendia and the neighboring village to raise awareness about the center. Thanks to their encouragement and insistence as well as the financial support of the World Bank, the center was renovated in 2008. Residents of Koba M’bendia financed 10 percent of the renovation and finished the project, painting and decorating the clinic. 

CMC members with their children.

The CMC is now part of the Health Center Management Committee, which is in charge of awareness-raising activities. Women now give birth at the health center, children receive regular vaccinations, and community members consult the nurse for health concerns. Already, there is a visible decline in both minor and fatal illnesses because of the community’s increased awareness and access to the renovated health center.

The success of the health center of Koba M’bendia has drawn patients from nine neighboring villages, showing both its success but also a greater need for more health posts in rural Guinea.  Unfortunately, the clinic cannot support everyone at its current capacity, but the CMC of Koba M’bendia uses social mobilization activities, such as inter-village meetings, to encourage other communities to invest in the creation of their own health centers.

Community Management Committees (CMCs) Ensure Sustainability: Nutrition in The Gambia

Story and photograph by Elizabeth Loveday, Regional Projects Assistant at Tostan The Gambia 

Our year-end fundraising campaign has begun, and this year, the Greenbaum Foundation will match every gift received, which means your impact will be instantly DOUBLED! As a part of our campaign, we will spotlight different stories from Community Management Committees (CMCs) - democratically selected groups in each community trained in project development and management. CMCs plan and carry out local initiatives, laying the foundation for community-led change and ensuring the sustainability of the Tostan program.  Contribute to sustainable development by donating today!

The Community Management Committee (CMC) of Kolibantang has taken a lead in ensuring the health and well-being of their youngest community members. On October 25, the CMC led a Nutrition Day to provide practical advice to children and their parents on healthy eating. 

The morning was spent preparing nutritious meals made with local produce such as beans, dried fish, vegetables, and mangoes from the 84 trees planted by the CMC. Sixty-five children from Kolibantang and the neighboring community of Yero Bawol were served a delicious meal, and it is sure to be a lesson that neither the parents nor the kids will forget. 

With over 8,000 Gambian Dalasi (approximately $264) in their community fund, raised through monthly contributions and fundraising activities, the CMC of Kolibantang can continue leading community initiatives, similar to Nutrition Day, spreading community awareness on issues of child health and nutrition. 

 

Portrait of a Leader: Ubah Abdilahi Hirsi

Ubah Abdilahi Hirsi was a Tostan participant in Somaliland. Her community of Daami completed Tostan’s holistic human rights-based education program, the Community Empowerment Program (CEP), in 2010. In this interview with the former National Coordinator of Tostan Somalia, Oumar Name, Ubah describes the positive changes she has seen in her family and community since her participation. Mouhamed Abdi, former Assistant to the National Coordinator at Tostan Somalia, translated this interview.

My name is Ubah Abdilahi Hirsi. I am 48-years-old and I live in Daami, a village in Somaliland. I participated in Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) from 2007 to 2010.  I am the oldest of eight children and when I was young, my father, a traditional carpenter of the village, could not afford to send me to school. Despite having no formal education, I worked very hard to open my own restaurant selling cups of tea and sandwiches. Every morning, I have to walk five kilometers to be at my restaurant before opening at 5:00 am - doing all the work in order to provide for my husband and seven children.

I first learned of Tostan’s CEP when other women and girls were talking about the program in my village.  At first, I did not think I would have time for the classes as my restaurant was the only source of income for my family. But even under difficult circumstances, I had such a strong desire to attend that I set aside two hours in the afternoon for Tostan classes.  Before Tostan, I did not know my human rights, but now, thanks to the classes, I have rediscovered how to smile and find happiness in my job and home.  

Like many places in Somaliland, there was a belief in Daami that women did not need to go to school. Tostan’s CEP showed me and other women that education is just as much our right as it is a man’s right.  I soon realized that when women and girls received education, social change began to unfold in my community. The first change happened within my own household when I began discussing what I learned in the Tostan classes with my uncle - he listened and respected my advice.  Family management became a joint effort for us, which in turn created a more positive family environment.

Within the community as a whole, women and girls united together to bring positive social reforms.  Tostan helped us change ourselves and helped us push others towards positive change. Now, I have a better understanding of birth spacing and good nutrition for children, which has helped to decrease the number of malnourished children in my village.  The community also experienced profound changes in regards to female genital cutting (FGC). I now understand the damaging health consequences of FGC on young girls, which is why I chose not to have it practiced on my daughter who was born one year after I began Tostan classes.

I also have a better understanding of my personal health and the importance of a clean home. I organized women and girls in the village into a group called Nanafada, which in Somali means to be clean and to clean your environment. Every weekend, I am joined by the women of Daami to sweep the village and share our knowledge of health and hygiene with other women who cannot attend Tostan classes. In cleaning the village, we have created a safer environment with cleaner food and homes and with less waste around the village.

Before Tostan’s classes, I worried that I would only be a restaurant worker. Now, I happily promote the cleanliness and well-being of the community members in Daami. I believe the most effective way to create lasting change is by engaging other women and girls in my community; the CEP gave me the tools to do that. 

There is a Somali proverb: “if you educate a man, you only educate one person. But if you educate women, you educate an entire society.”  I know now that women are an important element of development, and I would like to ask Tostan to make more classes available so that all communities can benefit from this program.

The Community Empowerment Program: Encouraging Environmental Best Practice

Story by Amy Roll, Development and Outreach Assistant, Tostan, Washington, DC 

Mam Kolley moved to the village of Hella Kunda in The Gambia when the community was implementing the Kobi, the second phase of Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP).

The CEP is a three-year program providing community participants with essential knowledge and skills, setting a foundation for communities to take direct control of their needs and development. 

Originally from Farafenni in the Northern Bank Region of The Gambia, Mam was trained as a Forestry Officer and relocated to Hella Kunda in the Upper River Region (URR). Although she had completed her primary and secondary education, Mam was drawn to Tostan’s CEP and soon became a participant. She realized there was much to gain from the class sessions that championed community-wide participation in activities in Hella Kunda.  

As a Forestry Officer, Mam recognized that the CEP class sessions could help to teach people good environmental practices while taking into account their own culture and traditions. The CEP class sessions are taught in participants’ local languages, and the comprehensive and holistic program covers a range of topics from human rights and health and hygiene to literacy and financial management - creating meaningful dialogue within communities. As Mam says, “the CEP seeks to empower people through the use of their very positive African cultures and in a participatory manner where there is no teacher but rather a facilitator.”  

Mam is invested in The Gambia’s sustainable development and protecting the environment. She sees great value in the CEP for building a foundation on which communities can address development responsibly and learn about their rights and responsibilities to each other and the environment. Mam has conducted awareness-raising sessions on the impacts of littering and the importance of disposing of waste far away from main living areas. She has also taught community members how to make greenhouses and encouraged them to use stoves efficiently in order to decrease the number of trees cut down for firewood. 

Through her participation in Tostan classes, Mam has been able to share best practices that protect the environment and the community. She also now has a forum to mobilize community members to conduct collective action.
Having seen the positive environmental impacts in Hella Kunda, Mam told us that she hopes one day Tostan’s grassroots approach to education will also spread to her hometown of Farafenni.

Portrait of a Leader: Coumba Samba Camara

Story and photograph by Anna Vanderkooy, Tostan Projects Assistant, Senegal

The community of Vélingara is located in the district of Ranérou in one of the most conservative regions of Senegal. In January 2012, Vélingara began Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) thanks to one woman, Coumba Samba Camara, who mobilized her community to participate in the program.

As part of Tostan’s community-led outreach approach called ‘organized diffusion,’ it broadcasts radio programs on themes covered during the CEP such as democracy, hygiene and health, problem solving, and project management. These radio broadcasts, which are hosted by Tostan facilitators and participants, allow messages that are key to inspiring community-led development to spread to villages that are not directly participating in the program.

Coumba first learned about Tostan through these radio broadcasts. She was so interested in what she heard that she made sure to be around a radio every time a show was scheduled. As was the case with Coumba’s village of Vélingara, communities that learn about Tostan through the radio often choose to invite the program to their own villages. 

Serving as a member of the Vélingara’s Rural Council, president of the local women’s group, and treasurer of the women’s dairy collective, well-respected Coumba was able to convince her peers of the benefits of participating in the Tostan program. When she learned that Tostan was working in her area, she arranged to meet local Tostan staff to get more information and encourage them to hold an information session in Vélingara. 

Through this process of bringing the CEP to her village, she also became involved in Tostan’s awareness-raising and social mobilization initiatives. She began to accompany their local team on trips to many nearby villages in order to share accurate information about harmful social norms such as female genital cutting (FGC) and child/forced marriage.

Since January 2012, when her village began CEP classes, Coumba shares that communication and decision-making in Vélingara has already improved. Regular village-wide meetings are now held, and community members are demonstrating their commitment to community-led development through village clean-ups, increased number of health visits, better collaboration with local authorities, increased community solidarity, and a new freedom of expression for women and adolescents.

Coumba is now a member of Vélingara’s recently formed Community Management Committee (CMC), and she works with her community to identify cases of human rights violations and take action to ensure that the human rights of every community member are respected. Coumba is a dynamic and active leader in her community, eagerly learning and sharing the new skills and knowledge from CEP classes. With this energy, she will continue to empower her own community of Vélingara and beyond.

Back to School: Tostan Classes Recommence With the End of the Rainy Season

Every year, communities in West Africa participating in Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) take a break from class activities during the rainy season. During this time, families devote their energy to harvesting crops. In this article by Lilli Loveday, Tostan Regional Projects Assistant in The Gambia, Tostan participant, Aminata Jallow, shares her excitement for CEP classes to recommence. 

Aminata, 15, lives with her family in Jendeh, a community in the Upper River Region (URR) of The Gambia. Her community began Tostan’s three-year Community EmpowermentProgram (CEP) in the spring of 2011. With the rainy season over, Aminata is eager to recommence Tostan classes sharing: “Just before the centers closed for the rainy season, we were raising awareness about [female genital cutting (FGC)] and child/forced marriage. We are all getting ready to publicly declare abandonment of these practices.”

Aminata, who previously shared that she was hesitant about joining Tostan classes because she heard that they focused entirely on FGC, explains: “I have seen that Tostan does not just focus on FGC. I learned a lot of things that have no connection to FGC.” Tostan’s holistic program covers the topics of human rights, democracy, health, hygiene, problem solving, literacy, math, and project management.

In Tostan classes, Aminata was informed about the practice of FGC in a context that has allowed her to explore the impact that practices such as FGC and child/forced marriage have on women and girls’ health and human rights, and she has been encouraged to come to her own conclusion. Aminata states: “I do not think that the practices of FGC or child/forced marriage are good because you should not force things on people, and it is a forced thing.”

This year, Aminata will enter Grade 6 at Koranic School. She aspires to continue her education and find employment. Last year, Aminata intended to become a Koranic teacher but has since changed her mind: “I would like to be a nurse. It will mean I can care for others.” Aminata’s commitment to her education has remained firm: “To become a nurse, I have to concentrate especially on English and Science. We learn those things now even at Koranic School.” In order to provide students at Koranic schools with the same opportunities as pupils at English schools, the Government of The Gambia introduced a new curriculum to include English and other core subjects into Koranic education.

Furthermore, Aminata looks forward to gaining the valuable skills of reading and writing in Mandinka, her native language, in the upcoming Tostan class sessions: “I will learn how to read and write and that will help me to work here in Jendeh, for my people.”

Aminata, like most of the people from her community, has been busy over the last couple of months with the growing of groundnuts, one of the most important crops of The Gambia. During the rainy season and harvest, both Tostan classes and Koranic classes have paused but they will soon restart, and Aminata is excited about getting back to studying: “It is important to help with the harvest to support my family and my community, but I am happy that I will soon be learning again.”

Spotlight on Girls: Aja Drammeh

Through our work we have learned that as communities become empowered through human rights-based education, their ability to empower girls amplifies. In celebration of the first ever International Day of the Girl—11 October 2012—we are sharing the inspiring stories of five girls as they pursue their goals and build an empowered future for themselves and their communities in our blog series, Spotlight on Girls.

Now let’s turn the spotlight on Aja Drummeh from Bajon Koto, The Gambia.

Story and photographs by Lilli Loveday, Projects Assistant, The Gambia

Aja speaking about human rights and health at an inter-village meeting in her community

Five-year-old Aja Drammeh lives in the Bajon Koto community in the Upper River Region (URR) of The Gambia. At an inter-village meeting held in her hometown at the end of August, Aja inspired the audience as she shared her remarkable knowledge of human rights, democracy, and issues related to health and hygiene.

Participants at the meeting could hardly believe it when Aja confidently took the microphone and explained, “democracy means power for the people. ‘Demos’ means people and ‘kratos’ means power.” She went on to share, “to be healthy doesn’t just mean not being sick but it also means someone who has good social relationships and good living with others.”

After her explanations of democracy and health, Aja completed her lesson to the audience by giving key dates in The Gambia’s political history, including the day the country gained independence. This was the first time Tostan The Gambia had witnessed a girl so young speaking so publicly and expertly about information she learned during class sessions of Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program.

Aja gained this knowledge through her community's participation in Tostan's human-rights based education program, the Community Empowerment Program (CEP). Tostan began implementing class sessions in Bajon Koto for adults and adolescents in March 2011. Since the beginning, Aja has joined her mother in the adult sessions. She explained, “I go along with my mum every week…learning is my favorite thing!”

Her mother, Isatou Fatty, is immensely proud of her daughter's willingness to learn, and said, “Aja is the youngest of my ten children. I am overwhelmed by how much she knows, and I always encourage her to go further.” It even came as a surprise to Aja's mother and the other class participants that she absorbed so much information, “I always thought she enjoyed classes but I didn’t know she was taking in so much…children are very surprising! I feel very proud!”

Aja also likes how Tostan uses traditional African teaching techniques in the CEP classes. She added, “I enjoy the singing and the dancing in Tostan classes. I am very happy when I’m singing the Tostan songs.” Joining with her mother and other female participants, she sang two songs in her own language, Mandinka. Some of the song lyrics, which were written by CEP class participants, included:

“Open the door for me to enter, so that I may know my human rights and the responsibilities for those rights.”

Aja leading a Tostan song with her mother and fellow CEP participants

Although Aja is still very young, she has already been set on the path of learning. Aja completed a preschool class when she was three and will begin Grade 1 later this year at the Bajon Koto Lower Basic School. Most children start Grade 1 when they are seven, but Aja’s ability and the support she receives from her mother have given her a head start.

Isatou's commitment to her daughter's education is clear: “I want her to be well-educated and to have a better future…” Already as a five-year-old, Aja says, “I’ve learned my A, B, C and my 1, 2, 3 at school, and through Tostan, I’ve learned all about my human rights.”

With the support of a community who participated in Tostan’s human rights-focused program, the messages reaching Aja will shape her understanding of the opportunities available to her as she grows up, opportunities that will not be restricted by her gender.

Aja and her mother, Isatou Fatty

Show your support for girls by sharing Aja’s story with your friends and family! Looking for more? Read other Spotlight on Girls posts here.

Spotlight on Girls: The Marietou Law

Through our work we have learned that as communities become empowered through human rights-based education, their ability to empower girls amplifies. In celebration of the first ever International Day of the Girl—11 October 2012—we are sharing the inspiring stories of five girls as they pursue their goals and build an empowered future for themselves and their communities in our blog series, Spotlight on Girls. 

Now let’s turn the spotlight on Marietou from Thiès, Senegal. 

Story by Penda Mbaye, Tostan Program Officer in Dakar, Senegal

In 2002, I was a facilitator of Tostan’s human rights-based education program, the Community Empowerment Program (CEP), in the small district of Hersent in Thiès, Senegal. There, I saw a 15-year-old CEP participant named Marietou positively change the perception of domestic violence in her entire community. 

At the age of four, Marietou’s father passed away, and she was forced to live with her stepfather who physically abused her mother every night. This abuse deeply affected her, but she felt she was not able to do anything about it but cry; she couldn’t intervene.

Years later, Marietou became a participant in Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP). After learning in class discussions about the importance of respecting and protecting the human rights of all people, she decided she had to do something to help her mother.  She could not take seeing her suffer any longer. She decided to talk to the district chief about it, but was disappointed by his reaction when he told her that children should not get involved with their parents’ business.

She thought then she must get more people’s attention in order to stop domestic violence in her community; she knew right away that she had to do something extraordinary that no one had ever done or seen before.
Empowered by her knowledge of human rights, Marietou headed to the community mosque all by herself so that she could bring up the issue of domestic violence to the imam and other important people in her community.

After the midday prayer, just about when people were ready to leave the mosque, Marietou politely said, “Can I please have your attention for just a second?”

All eyes turned to her; people were surprised that she, a young girl, had come to the mosque to talk to them. Everyone waited curiously to know what she had to say.

She asked the imam, “Did you know some of the people in this very mosque abuse their wives every single day? I’m curious to know: does Islam allow you to abuse your wife like some people I know (directly referring to her stepfather)? Did you know that all people have the right to be protected from domestic violence? Please, dear imam, do something to stop domestic violence in this neighborhood. If you don’t do anything and my stepfather keeps beating my mother, I will have to call the police on him and all the other men who do the same thing because I know who you are.”

At first everyone in the mosque started to laugh, but then all eyes shifted to her stepfather. 

The imam gave everyone permission to leave the mosque except for Marietou and her stepfather. He sternly told him that Islam does not condone domestic violence. After sometime Marietou’s stepfather started to cry and vowed to never put his hands on Marietou’s mother again.

During the next two Friday prayers, the imam decided to center his teachings on domestic violence and how that it is not supported by Islam. Community members also became involved by organizing a forum on domestic violence. At that point, all important members of the district decided to join the cause to abandon domestic violence. A collective decision was put in place to denounce anyone in the neighborhood who did not comply with the rest of the community in abandoning domestic violence. 

To enforce this collective decision, a law was implemented; they called it the Marietou Law. Marietou was also elected the coordinator of a new community watch committee to protect women and adolescent girls against domestic violence. She shared how glad she was that the imam and entire community became involved in helping to stop domestic violence. 

Strengthened by the knowledge she gained through participation in the CEP and her own personal courage, Marietou emerged as a true champion of human rights. Now she does not need to worry about her mother or other women being abused in her community.

Show your support for girls by sharing Marietou's story with your friends and family! Looking for more? Read other Spotlight on Girls posts here.

Spotlight on Girls: Hamda and the Young Human Rights Defenders of Somaliland

Through our work we have learned that as communities become empowered through human rights-based education, their ability to empower girls amplifies. In celebration of the first ever International Day of the Girl—11 October 2012—we are sharing the inspiring stories of five girls as they pursue their goals and build an empowered future for themselves and their communities in our blog series, Spotlight on Girls. 

Now let’s turn the spotlight on Hamda and the girls from the Maroodi Jeex region of Somaliland.

Story by Birima Fall, National Coordinator of Tostan Somalia

Hamda reading the public declaration for the
abandonment of FGC and child/forced marriage

On July 7, 2012, a young girl named Hamda announced the decision made by 28 communities in the Maroodi Jeex region of Somaliland, to abandon all forms of female genital cutting (FGC) and child/forced marriage. Hamda's community helped reach the decision to declare abandonment through participation in Tostan's human rights-based education program, the Community Empowerment Program (CEP). 

Throughout the process that led to that memorable day, the attention of the Tostan team in Somalia was caught by the dynamism and spirit of participation by the girls participating in the CEP.

Even though Hamda is young, she had the courage to stand up for her human rights and realized the importance of her education. Along with other girls her age, Hamda participates in the CEP class sessions centered on human rights. The class sessions help girls to understand the responsibility their parents have to protect their rights, for example the right to be free from all forms of violence. At the same time, they learn they have the duty to participate in the development of their families and community. 

Through the Tostan class sessions, Hamda and other girls her age have learned how to encourage positive social change in their families and communities, and play a big role in community activities such as regular clean-ups and awareness-raising events about FGC, child/forced marriage, violence against women, health, and protecting the environment.

The girls also spread awareness about what they learn through a drama group that performs local songs and poems to advocate for positive social change. While girls take on the lead roles in the drama group, boys also participate to raise awareness about human rights.  

Hamda, along with the 28 declaring communities, pledged to engage hundreds of villages in the ongoing movement for positive social transformation in Somaliland. Together they are fulfilling their responsibilities as human rights defenders.
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