Tostan at The World Social Forum

Story by Will Schomburg, Tostan Communications Assistant in Dakar, Senegal

As delegates to the World Social Forum (WSF)—representatives from organizations as well as those simply interested ─ poured into Senegal from across the region and far beyond, the buzz in Dakar became palpable. While on a normal Monday morning at Cheikh Anta Diop University, the chatter of busy students might echo around campus in Wolof, French or any other of the Republic’s numerous spoken languages, on that Monday, 8th February 2011, Arabic, English, Spanish and Portuguese crowds joined their chorus, as delegates poured into the Forum.

Tostan's stand at the World Social Forum

The gathering witnessed 75,000 participants from a widely diverse range of backgrounds and disciplines. South American journalists, French unionists and Palestinian women’s groups to name but a few of those represented were joined by myriad organizations from across Africa, small and large, the combination of which provided the backbone to the dynamic week.

WSF was set up a decade ago to act as an ideological counterbalance to the World Economic Forum that takes places annually in Davos, Switzerland at approximately the same time. This Swiss counterpart is often criticized for its capitalist, pro-globalization agenda, while WSF aims to create a space in which grassroots movements and humanitarian causes have a platform on which they may better promote their work.

Visual aids used by facilitators
of the CEP

Tostan had a good-sized stand near the dining area that welcomed a strong flow of development enthusiasts throughout the week, many of whom were full from the array of Senegalese delicacies on offer around us that helped to create a lively atmosphere. This was added to by the spontaneous outpourings of music, dance and protest that almost hourly would spring to life and reverberate across the campus.

Jokko solar suitcase



We lined our stand with pictures from the ‘image box’,’ a visual aid used by the facilitators of our Community Empowerment Program (CEP) to facilitate discussions of human rights amongst participants. As we explained to visitors, the CEP not only approaches the question of human rights and responsibilities, but also teaches numeracy, literacy and small-business management in 16 different national languages in our 8 national offices across Africa. In collaboration with UNICEF, Tostan’s innovative Jokko Initiative promotes skills learnt in the program through mobile phones and SMS text messaging, connecting even the most remote villages to the wider community. The Jokko solar suitcase Tostan exhibited drew throngs of curious local students, eager to learn more about the initiative. During our conversations we stressed that Tostan is primarily an organization that promotes sustainable, community-led education but also highlighted other projects such as our Child Protection Project and work in women’s prisons throughout the event.

Tostan staff engaging in conversation
about the Jokko solar suitcase

On several occasions, Tostan staff spoke with men and women for whom the organization meant more than the average passerby as they themselves had directly benefited from the implementation of the CEP in their village. None of us could promote our work better than these people whose lives had consequently been changed for the better. One engaging woman from Senegal’s southern Casamance region had completed the program and now works for a local women’s group promoting children’s education.

At the end of a tiring yet hugely satisfying week, Tostan spoke with countless passionate and engaging people keen to share ideas. We hope to build on the contact made and forge friendships from which our organization and communities will forever benefit.

Advocate, Julia Lalla-Maharajh, Inspired by Recent Public Declaration

Julia Lalla-Maharajh, "passionate advocate" for the abandonment of FGC and founder of the Orchid Project, recently visited several communities where Tostan's Community Empowerment Program is in place. Her experience talking with community members and witnessing the excitement at Sare Ngai's public declaration left her energized, ready to continue working towards positive social transformation. Here is the full article from The Huffington Post:

Dancing to End Female Genital Cutting

February 8, 2011
The Huffington Post
Julia Lalla-Maharajh

I'm here in Dakar, Senegal. It's a long way from London, Davos and Ethiopia. I'm seeing different things, learning so much and marvelling constantly at the changes that are happening here on the ground and in communities.

As a "passionate advocate" to end female genital cutting, my story is a pedestrian one, mimicked (I'm sure) across the Western world. A lifetime of mortgage enslavement, corporate kowtowing and daily commuting on packed London Tube trains led me to rethink. My second life began about two years ago, when I headed out to Ethiopia to volunteer. It was in Addis Ababa that my eyes opened in wonder as I viewed the lives of women and girls around me. How had they been born into this life of hard work, of carrying loads far too heavy for their backs, of little schooling?

It got worse when I heard about female genital cutting, its scale and impacts. The shock I felt was tangible. On a trip to Lalibela, an ancient relic of a holy city in northern Ethiopia, I met two little girls who have stayed in my mind's eye throughout this journey. I wanted to talk with their parents, their community, beg for them not to be cut. But I knew I had no agency, no right, no legitimacy to intervene in anyone's culture in such a stumbling, righteous way.

Back in London, I volunteered with Forward learning about a better way to engage with communities. Rather incongruously, I appeared on the plinth in Trafalgar Square and exhorted crowds not to look away from this very complex, heart-rending issue.

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After a Year of Volunteering, The Assistant to the International Communications Team Bids Farewell to her Tostan Family

Story by Sydney Skov, Tostan Volunteer in Dakar, Senegal

Directing a summer camp for kids at my local tennis club was a perfect, post-college career with a short life expectancy and excellent swimming pool perks, but I had my sights set on something more than arts and crafts afternoons. Driven by a passion for adventure and a desire to continue my studies of French and African relations outside the classroom, I searched single-mindedly for a way to live in Senegal. With deferred student loans and a non-existent budget, most programs I found seemed impossibly expensive. My high-top All-Stars were worn through at the heels and I had learned to live entirely off of instant oatmeal. Time and effort were what I had to give. 

Enter a little bit of luck and a good Google search. Tostan. The volunteer positions were exactly what I had been looking for: based in Senegal, lasting six months to a year, and focused on professional work with an NGO working to promote causes I believe in: human rights and education. I booked my flight.

I arrived at 6 am. As I began to sweat I thought how strange it was that I’d been standing in snow only hours before. The beads on my forehead were a subtle yet effective display of my new arrival status; men at the airport were wearing parkas, cold in the balmy January winter. The sun rose over the sandy roads and the raw brick buildings; after a quick taxi ride, I was home. I threw my jeans in the back of the closet in the Tostan volunteer house, donned a floor length skirt instead, and greeted a girl in red-striped p-js with blond hair and tired eyelids who was just getting up: my roommate for the next seven months. Exhausted from a month-long monitoring mission to The Gambia, Katie said nothing but, “Do you want to go to church?” Her invitation— to a local Christian church in a predominately Muslim country – sparked my curiosity. As the call to prayer sounded from the neighborhood mosque, I headed downtown to a gospel church. From the windows of the black and yellow taxi I caught my first true glimpses of the fascinating and diverse undercurrents of my new life in Senegal.  

Although I extended my stay with Tostan from six months to a year, I’m still not ready to go. Dakar has become a second home thanks to the warm welcome of Tostan staff and older volunteers who taught me how to greet a room with Wolof hellos and handshakes, how to bargain with a taxi driver, how to share lunch around a big silver bowl without making everyone else uncomfortable, how to exist in respectful harmony with a culture that is not my own. My dedication to human rights education continues to strengthen as I see proof of positive social transformation stemming from grassroots development. I have seen hundreds of communities stand up to publicly declare abandonment of harmful practices like female genital cutting and child/forced marriage. I have been lucky enough to be a part, however tiny, of Tostan and this history-making movement.

I have also been lucky enough to weave myself into this city’s vibrant fabric, to meet and mingle with inspired Dakar dancers who have, for me—a long-time contemporary dancer—re-defined what it means to be an artist.

My experiences of dance in Dakar have included many classes, rehearsals, performances, and workshops. And the more I learn, the more I give in to rhythms and steps my legs and feet find unfamiliar, the more I understand how everything is connected—how dance is in everything, in the steps of wrestlers by the water, in the rhythmic pounding of spices with a mortar and pestle, in the celebration of women as their villages abandon ancient, harmful traditions, in the melodic lilt of Wolof phrases that remind us that we are all together. Volunteering with Tostan and my experiences in Senegal have given me more than I could have hoped; they have shown me how we are all connected in our work, in the help that we offer each other, in the belief that we all have the right and the capacity to live better lives if we just have the courage to open ourselves up to something new. We can all change ourselves for the better. I can only thank my family at Tostan, and my extended family and friends in Senegal, for helping me to see this incredible truth as it develops in communities across West Africa, and within me.     

Discussing Community Empowerment in Koulikoro, Mali

Story by Claire Constant, Tostan Volunteer in Bamako, Mali

Tostan’s National Coordinator in Mali, his assistant, and I, the Tostan volunteer based in Bamako, Mali, visited the region of Koulikoro, some 60 kilometers from Bamako. The goal of our mission was to assist in the intervillage meetings, or RIVs, which bring together the rural communities of Dienandougou and Méguétan in the area of Koulikoro, a region in which Tostan has implemented the Community Empowerment Program (CEP).

Once in Koulikoro, we arrived at the Niger River and continued our journey across to Kénandou, the main village of Dienandougou, where the welcome we received from the community was truly remarkable. In the presence of the Mayor, health workers, and representatives from the Office of Radio and Television in Mali, CEP participants came in droves, excited by the news that the CEP would soon begin again.  

We were also welcomed by the Mayor himself. Village representatives and many CEP coordinators responded to the call for a meeting, demonstrating the strength of the communities’ commitment to the Tostan program.    

The object of the meeting was to share with the villages the essential points of the remainder of Tostan’s 30-month education program, which is based on a respect for human rights. The audience enthusiastically welcomed the news that facilitators ─ individuals from the region trained by Tostan to lead CEP classes ─ would soon be back to begin the second phase of the program: the Kobi 2. This module of the Tostan program, which deals primarily with the subjects of health and hygiene, follows the Kobi 1, a module focused on democracy and human rights.

Having paused for the rainy season, everyone gathered affirmed that they were eager to begin the next phase of the Tostan program in order to gain more  knowledge and skills. The community empowerment movement continues.


Photos by Claire Constant