Tabara Sy /
Tostan /
Dakar, Senegal /
While I feel very connected to the country of Senegal just from my parent’s being from there and visiting often, there is also a lot of disconnect, which I realized during my trip to Fouta. We visited a couple of villages and towns around the Matam region, including Ourossogui, Kanel, Fourdou Mbayla, and Ranerou.
The NGO that I’m working with focuses their Community Empowerment Programs (CEP) on female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage, being that they are heavily practiced in areas like Fouta. On June 27, 2021, Fourdou Mbayla and 60 other surrounding villages celebrated their completion of Tostan’s community enrichment model and declared the end to the practices of FGC and child marriage.
The event consisted of speeches by chiefs, governors of Matam, and leaders of the community. The girls and boys put together a skit to display the dangers of these practices and why it should be abandoned. Tostan partnered with different human rights organizations, like UNICEF.
Interviews were conducted to see what changes were made from these community empowerment programs and what the local people have gained from it. The best thing about these classrooms is that they are run and facilitated by the people themselves, so there is a productive learning exchange between them.
A direct result from the programs was mobilization and more women in leadership positions. A good number of the facilitators in each of the villages were women. The official declaration announcement was conducted by two young women, which in itself shows the progress in their lives.
The facilitator of the youth in Fourdou Mbayla, Bocar Diallo, talked about the different leadership positions and responsibilities that the women take, which was very different from when he first moved to the village in 2001 from Oudalaye. This was a huge accomplishment for the community as a whole.
As much as this was a major step for Fourdou Mbayla and the other villages involved in the declaration, the village of Ranerou’s takeaway from the program was realizing the importance of hygiene, especially for women and health.