Voices of Tostan: Farba M'Bow

Farba M’bow spent his childhood in Senegal and moved to the United States. His mother, once a participant in Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) herself, encouraged Farba to look into jobs within international development. Farba rediscovered Tostan in Washington, DC where he interned as Communications Assistant from September to December 2012. Here, he gives a personal account of his journey and how his experience with Tostan has impacted his life. 

Story by Farba M’Bow, former Tostan Communications Assistant in Washington, DC

Farba and his mother, a former Tostan participant 

When I finished college, I came back home full of ambitions but not truly knowing exactly what the near future had in store for me. I began a manufacturing job still trying to figure out what to do next. Several months later, I joined AmeriCorps where I provided academic support to at-risk youth at a local high school. The experience was great, and I found myself easily interacting with the students, but I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to pursue a career in education. Then one day my mother suggested that I look into international nonprofit organizations after my time with AmeriCorps. I have yet to understand the reason she mentioned this, but it was exactly what I was planning on doing.

A few months later, out of the blue, my mom asked if I could find her the types of reading manuals that she used to study with in Pulaar back in Senegal and suggested that I search for them on the Internet. Well, I knew that the books she read came from an organization called Tostan and I started my search.

I was immediately drawn to Tostan’s website; seeing the incredible work that Tostan was doing in at least eight African countries was so amazing and very appealing. Then later, I discovered that ‘tostan’ was a Wolof word that meant “breakthrough”. Well, I knew what breakthrough meant in English, but I did not recall using ‘tostan’ in any of my Wolof conservations back in Senegal. I asked my mom, who actually speaks better Wolof than Pulaar, but she didn’t know either. I guessed that it had probably been replaced by a French word during the process of colonization. I went ahead and continued searching.

I forgot all about the reading manuals I was asked to look for and started a search of my own. I felt the urgent need to delve deeper into Tostan. I watched every video that I could find and read every article about Tostan. Then one day, I came across a video of Molly Melching explaining the word ‘Tostan’! I listened thoroughly to the point where she explained the meaning of the word as “the hatching of an egg”. Then it hit me! I picked up the phone and explained it to my mother and she went on to say, “Oh yeah, now I remember what that means.”

The analogy of Tostan as “the hatching of an egg” made perfect sense to me. Putting this into context, I knew from personal experience that many women and children hide their opinions because of social and cultural norms and expectations. I was automatically reminded of the example of a girl who gets married at the age of 14 and is forced to live in a confined village of only a couple of hundred people with all the societal and cultural components that come along with this situation. The only way that person can overcome her difficulties and rise above social expectations or ‘hatch out of the egg’ is through education.

My mother hatched out of her own egg in 2000 when she decided to participate in Tostan classes. She had never attended school before. In the Tostan classroom, they started with very basic skills. She went from putting syllables together to reading themes that we could all relate to at home. My four brothers and I were all eager to help. By doing so, we were also able to read in Pulaar, which is something that the school system in Senegal did not teach students. I particularly remember very entertaining and pedagogical animal stories, such as “The Dog and Monkey Wrestling” and another that talked about health and hygiene and ended with the phrase, “When mom and dad are unclean, there is no way they can raise a clean baby.” As children, we found this very funny but also understood it was true.

One thing we did not fully comprehend, however, was just how important the impact that Tostan’s nonformal education program was going to have on our mother. She put everything she learned into practice. She even went on to expand her business by buying dyed cloth from Mali and selling it back to other businesses. A few years after her experience with Tostan, she came up with the incredible idea for us to apply for visas to the United States. As children, we just needed to attend the interviews and within six months, we packed up all our belongings and got on to the plane to the US!

Years later, inspired by my mother’s story, I kept researching Tostan until I found the volunteer and internship opportunities. With a background in political science and women’s studies, everything that Tostan worked on interested me. I was convinced that this was the type of organization in which I could apply what I studied to the real world. On my last day of service with AmeriCorps, I interviewed for the Communications Assistant position with Tostan and received my acceptance within the same week! 

On my first day of orientation, I showed up at the office, rang the bell, adjusted my tie, and patiently waited.  Tostan was everything I expected it to be! The décor on the walls made me think that I was in an actual African community. The pictures of happy looking faces of Tostan participants from African villages automatically reminded me of Tostan’s vision, “Human dignity for all.” I remember thinking that this was the perfect place for me to intern. Everyone at the office was very welcoming. The diversity at Tostan was amazing. From the staff to the interns, everyone spoke another language other than English or had lived in a developing country. I could easily engage in conversation with someone in French, Wolof or Pulaar, and my personal story and that of my mother was well understood.

Working in the Communications Department at Tostan was very rewarding. Every week, we would go over all the activities that Tostan was planning: events, media coverage, and voyages to reach out to the furthest African communities. Tostan’s presence in Senegalese villages that I didn’t even knew existed was proof that community-led development and organized diffusion work. I was stunned to see all the behind-the-scenes activities and the effort, dedication, and cohesiveness the staff contributed so that projects would be completed on time. I was also pleased to discover Tostan’s strategic approaches in terms of changing social norms without harming tradition. Abandoning female genital cutting (FGC); promoting children’s and human rights; establishing social justice; keeping girls, boys, men, and women in school; and reducing domestic violence against women and children in numerous African villages were just some of the momentous results I witnessed while at Tostan. 

I finished my internship very humbled to see all that it takes for an organization like Tostan to educate someone like my mother and thousands more women, men, and children. Leaving Tostan’s office with an invaluable knowledge in nonprofit management will significantly impact my professional career. Hatching from a shell of my own, I will bring with me all that I have learned at Tostan on to my future endeavors.

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.

Crossing Boundaries: Communities From Senegal and Mali Come Together To Declare Their Abandonment Of Harmful Cultural Practices

Story by Aude Muillez and Will Schomburg, Tostan Volunteers in Senegal

Located in the far east of Senegal, the Kéniéba zone of Tambacounda region, which leans against the border with Mali, certainly feels far away from cosmopolitan Dakar. It was only after a long, off-road journey through an arid terrain peppered with colossal Baobab trees that we finally arrived at the host village of Gathiary. This community belongs to the minority Soninke tribe with a distinctive language and culture, found primarily in this eastern outpost and across the border in Mali. Visitors to Senegal often praise the country’s hospitality, referred to locally as terranga, and this minority community was no exception-- the villagers went to every length imaginable to ensure we were made to feel welcome and comfortable.

We were in Gathiary as the village was playing host to a public declaration at which eighty-nine communities were to announce their abandonment of female genital cutting (FGC) and child/forced marriage. Of this number, thirty were villages engaged in Tostan’s non-formal, participatory Community Empowerment Program (CEP), which facilitates discussions surrounding human rights and health as well as numeracy, literacy and a range of different issues.

The historic event, as the President of the Rural Community defined it, began a day early, on Friday night, at the neighboring village of Tamé. This community began as an adopted village, benefitting from Tostan’s program through the process of “organized diffusion.” Through organized diffusion, participants from the program in Gathiary visited neighboring villages, including Tamé, to share the information they had learned in the CEP.

This periphery involvement in the Tostan program was not enough for the motivated and determined community members in Tamé. When the Tostan Regional Coordinator visited Gathiary a month after the program had begun, women from Tamé came to see him and demanded that Tostan implement the CEP in their own community, which they consequently received. One year on and determined as ever, the women of Tamé organized a cultural evening of dancing and skits for guests the night before the declaration in addition to the cultural evening planned and organized for the following evening in Gathiary.

The population of Gathiary more than doubled on the weekend of the declaration with village representatives travelling from as far as Mali to attend and participate. The wood fires under the large cooking pots roared all weekend long with women taking turns to fry potatoes or dance in large circles with the adolescent girls whose colorful traditional head dresses gleamed in the roasting sun.

The declaration on Sunday was read aloud in French, Mandinka, Pulaar and Soninke and was followed by a string of speeches given by visiting delegates and community representatives. The local imam of Gathiary, who was instrumental to the community’s abandonment, explained that he was extremely engaged in Tostan’s program, its goals and in the journey that led to this declaration. He also explained that he works to raise awareness in his own community and how he will continue to travel to villages where community members are reluctant to abandon FGC and child/forced marriage. He explained that he will speak with imams and marabouts (traditional religious leaders) and explain his conviction that the Qur’an supports women’s health and fundamentally opposes FGC.

Initially concerned that many participants would not come to this event due its isolated location, the organizers were impressed with the attendance as well as the participation of representatives from the Mauritanian and Malian communities. Upon their departure, the Mauritania representatives expressed their desire to invite the adolescents from Gathiary and Tamé to raise awareness about these issues back in their communities in Mauritania. This landmark occasion proves that while these communities may be detached from the nation’s urban and economic centers, it is clear that these communities’ formidable dynamism will form the basis for their ongoing development.

*Aude is Tostan’s regional volunteer who will shortly be leaving Senegal after spending a year based most recently in the Tambacounda region and was deeply involved in this, her last declaration. William is Tostan’s communications assistant in Dakar.