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.

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.

VOICES OF TOSTAN: Fatoumata Sumareh

Sixteen year-old Fatoumata Sumareh was born in the community of Touba Sandu in the Upper River Region (URR) of The Gambia, where she lives with her mother and father and her younger siblings. Fatoumata participates in Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP), which began in her village in the spring of 2011. In this interview with Elizabeth Loveday, Tostan Project Assistant in The Gambia, Fatoumata describes how her participation with Tostan has changed her everyday experience and goals for the future.

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



Fatoumata Sumareh



Fatoumata is a keen participant in Tostan’s CEP class sessions. She was inspired to join the program because of her desire to further her knowledge about themes in the CEP, such as human rights, health, literacy, and project management. In early 2012, her community completed the second phase of the CEP, the Kobi, which focuses on hygiene and health. As a result of learning about health and hygiene, many communities organize village clean-up days and promote hand washing and clean food preparation. These class sessions were of particular interest to Fatoumata:

"Tostan has strengthened our community’s awareness of why it is important to have a clean environment. We have learned that if you do not have a clean living environment you cannot be free from diseases and you cannot be healthy. I think understanding that is really important."

In addition to attending Tostan classes, Fatoumata is currently enrolled in Grade five of the Koranic school in a nearby village. “I enjoy this education and I love to learn! I want to learn everything I can.’’ Fatoumata is dedicated to her studies both with Tostan and at the Koranic school and has strong ambitions to take her education to the highest level: “In the future I would like to be somebody who is very educated. I would like to be a doctor.’’

Fatoumata’s parents approached her about marriage in 2011. She said: "They proposed marriage to me once… but I want to get married at 18 or above, I do not want to get married before that because I am not ready."

Through the CEP class sessions on human rights and health, parents are encouraged to let their children chose their spouses after they turn 18 and are educated on child protection and the harmful consequences of early pregnancy. Fatoumata’s parents respected her decision. Reduced rates of child/forced marriage have been some of the most prominent and visible results of the Tostan program.

Now that the village of Touba Sandu has completed the Kobi, it will begin the final phase of the CEP, the Aawde. The Aawde focuses on functional literacy in national languages and project management. Fatoumata is looking forward to learning how to read and write in Mandinka. At the moment, she is only literate in Arabic. 

Speaking with great confidence about her ambitions for the future and becoming a doctor, 16 year old Fatoumata is excited about participating in the Aawde and using her knowledge and skills to reach her goals and improve the well-being of her family and community.