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.
