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!