Training in Transformation

 When Molly made the profound statement “This is a movement for social change. We are building critical mass” a wave of exhilaration swept through me, from head to toe.

Being part of this transformative grassroots movement across Africa is the culmination of my life experience. My diverse career in journalism, my endless studies in psychology and my decades of devotion to raising children has steered me along a meandering track but now I’ve returned to my core values and quite possibly the work I was born to do.  

The prospect of living with the purpose of improving the quality of life for the poorest of the poor fills me with joy, love and empowerment. Ever since I was an idealistic university student in my early 20s, the struggle for human rights and social justice lit a fire in my belly. In my feisty youth I was enraged and pained by the unfairness of inequality, poverty, cruelty and suffering.

So here I am, sitting in a circle with a dream team of dedicated Tostan staff - Molly, Birima, Yussuf, Marmie, Daniel and our skilful translator, Cherif - and 20 other eager participants from around the world: America, England, Australia, Denmark, India, Morocco, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Swaziland, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. 

A Celebration of Diversity 

What a colourful mixture of cultures we are and yet we are united by a passion to make a difference.

We’ve all come to this large round room, styled on an African thatch-roofed hut, at the impressive training centre and accommodation based in Thies, the fourth largest city of Senegal in West Africa, two hour’s sultry drive from the bustling capital of Dakar to be trained in the Tostan method of community-led development.

“Tostan” in the local language of Wolof is an evocative word meaning “breakthrough”, the breaking of an egg, when the little chick emerges to start a new life. This unique program has been the catalyst for spreading transformation, indeed giving hope and new life to a multitude of resource-poor communities.

The dynamic organisation is celebrating its 25^th anniversary this year, bringing education about health and human rights to hundreds of remote villages throughout West Africa, transforming life for millions of women, men and children.

The fertile seeds of knowledge have miraculously sprouted life-enhancing projects in food production, clean water and sanitation, healthcare, schools, solar power and income-generating projects such as tie-dying fabric, soap making, poultry farming and the greatest achievement of all, ending the harmful practice of female genital cutting (FGC) and child marriage of precious young girls. 

Tostan Founder and CEO, Molly Melching is a pioneer with the rare combination of strength and tough determination mixed with the softness of empathy and compassion that comes from years of witnessing gruelling hardship and brutal deprivation and misery.

An America raised in the conservative midwestern state of Illinois, Molly, as an adventurous 24 year old exchange student landed in Senegal in 1974 for a six month stint of studying African Literature at the University of Dakar. That was 42 years ago and she’s still living in her beloved Senegal, with a fierce devotion to the Senegalese people.

Devotion to A Cause

Her devotion to Senegal led Molly to master both fluent French and the traditional language of Wolof and immerse herself in the culture by living in impoverished villages and truly understanding the people and their needs and aspirations through a process of non-judgmental, respectful “deep listening”.

She came to understand that ignorance, or simply a dire lack of basic information, was at the root of so much unnecessary suffering. Without scientific explanations in their own language, villagers often attributed the cause of sickness, death and misfortunes to “bad spirits”.

She also realised that knowledge is the key to empowerment; specifically knowledge about health, anatomy, hygiene and germ-transmission, child development, human rights, problem solving, conflict resolution and good governance.

Through her many years of patient, compassionate listening to the locals’ heartfelt values, yearning aspirations and deep desire for community wellbeing, Molly developed a comprehensive (some 2000 pages) education program to be taught by local village facilitators in their own language spread over three years.

While other well-meaning charities, NGOs and government agencies have often swept into poor communities, identified needs and imposed solutions, which were doomed to fail, Molly’s radical approach was to empower villagers with essential knowledge and allow them to join the dots, make their own connections, experience the thrill of light bulb moments and discover for themselves their needs and solutions. And the approach worked!

Tostan’s transformative Community Empowerment Program (CEP) has been so successful, it’s attracted funding and support from UNICEF, UNFPA, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the  Carter Center, Hillary Clinton, the London-based Orchid Project and hundreds of loyal donors. The program's been scrutinised by curious academics, monitored and evaluated and won numerous prestigious awards including the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize for "extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering." 

Rocket Launcher for Social Change  

Once we human beings know profound truth, we can’t ‘unknow’ it and knowledge becomes the rocket launcher for unstoppable social change. With Tostan’s guidance, village participants organised themselves into Community Management Committees (CMC) with enthusiastic elected representatives (over half of whom are women) meeting regularly to discuss problems and initiate creative projects. Village reps also began gathering at monthly regional meetings that have now become a political force.

During our training CMC members joined our circle to share their experiences. The women, resplendent in their beautiful African dresses and headscarves, were once shy and silent and now travel by horse and cart from village to village as dynamic awareness-raising activists and respected leaders in their communities.  We were also honoured to listen to a respected Imam explain how FGC is not condoned by the Muslim faith.

We were delighted to visit two villages in the district that have been working with Tostan for several years: the Village of Keur Simbara and Keur Thiem Saware.

I will never forget the warm, jubilant welcome as beautiful women and men in their colourful clothes and laughing children lined our path and clapped, drummed, danced and sung as we arrived to join their gathering to hear proud reports of their amazing projects and watch touching performances about all they have learned about human rights.

Our 10-day training course was enriched with singing, dancing, theatre and animated discussions and full-on participation in the same practical, hands-on ways villagers learn new information and skills. 

For someone like me who usually sits in a workshop passively listening to the instructor and scribbling notes, I was gently pushed out of my comfort zone to brainstorm and perform on the spot but what a powerful way to learn! I've absorbed the knowledge deeply into my whole being, anchored by positive memories.

In between sessions we enjoyed scrumptious traditional meals served by elegant Senegalese ladies in the cool, spacious dining room where the effusive conversation bubbled over the spicy dishes as we shared stories and ideas! 

A Plan of Action

On the final day we all presented our action plans to the group. I teamed up with lovely Millicent, an experienced nurse and midwife from Kenya, and together we created a vision for bringing the Tostan Empowerment Program to the remote rural communities where she lives. I will be writing much more about this exciting project over the coming months. Stay tuned!

In the Gratitude Circle the hugs of affection between everyone were genuine and heartfelt and tears of love and appreciation flowed freely.

Pure Joy 

By the time the farewell dinner celebration came around, we had all bonded and become good friends. Wearing our colourful African boubous and khaftans, each of us in turn danced across the hall with sheer exuberance and elation to music from our country of birth to receive certificates from Molly and Birima. Young Daniel and I busted some very unusual moves for Australia!

And then we exchanged gifts with our “long-lost brothers and sisters” from different countries, extending the hands of friendship and solidarity across the world. 
My new sister Nomcebo presented me with a stunning traditional shawl from Swaziland and I gave here a pretty floral plate and chocolates from the little English village of Tenterden! 

An Inspiring Mentor

And spontaneously, as a fitting finale, our impromptu ‘African Women’s Choir’ sang a rousing verse of You Raise Me Up to Molly Melching, a fearless champion of social change, who has become our inspiring hero, empowering us all to take the transformative Tostan program and principles of human rights to poor communities everywhere.

You raise me up so I can stand on mountains

You raise me up to walk on stormy seas

I am strong when I am on your shoulders

You raise me up to more than I can be.

      

The Tostan Breakthrough

Everyone on Planet Earth who feels empathy and concern for the suffering of others agrees that the cruel and harmful practice of female genital mutilation must stop.

We all want to prevent the trauma, human rights violation and life-long suffering inflicted on 8000 girls every day across Africa and around the world.

The real question is HOW do we stop this deeply entrenched custom that has continued for over 2000 years, passed down from generation to generation, where a mother who has endured the trauma as a child inflicts the same trauma on her daughter? How do we break the generational cycle?

There’s the legal approach. Governments have enacted laws against FGM and threatened “cutters” with imprisonment. And still they are defiant. The day the law was passed in Senegal in 1999, one village cut 100 girls in protest.

Another strategy is to target traditional cutters and give them alternative employment. However still mothers find someone to cut their daughters.

Another way is having anti-FGM activists host meetings in villages and lecture the women about the horrendous health consequences of slicing off a beautiful, precious child’s genitals with a razor blade without anaesthetic.

If the girl does not die from shock, blood loss or infection, she is condemned to a lifetime of pain and suffering.

And life is hard enough in poor rural villages in Africa without adding unnecessary hardship to the lives of women who carry the burden of childbirth, childcare and work.

All heavy-handed, authoritarian methods have not stopped FGM. Shocking, shaming, blaming, judging and condemning have failed abysmally to end the widespread harmful practice.

So WHY have these methods failed?

The ‘tradition’ is fiercely defended in African communities as a religious duty, as a way to honour ancestors and to gain marriageability, family honour and respectability. And the practice is wrapped in a code of silence where women are forbidden to talk about the tradition they revere as a deeply personal and sacred rite of womanhood.

And yet, how long the tradition has existed or the strength of feelings and beliefs doesn’t make FGM right. For the health and wellbeing of millions of girls and women, the harmful practice must stop.

The Breakthrough

One courageous American woman has found a way. Through 40 years of living and working in Senegal, Molly Melching has devised a strategy that promises to end FGM across Africa and the world.

The exquisitely written book However Long the Night by author Aimee Molloy tells the inspirational story of Molly’s journey from a bright-eyed university student from Illinois to a powerful campaigner heading up the acclaimed organisation, Tostan.

In the Senegalese language of Wolof, Tostan is a beautiful word meaning the hatching of an egg at the breakthrough moment when the chick emerges from the shell.

Molly Melching hatched not just a good idea but gave birth to a human rights revolution. Over 25 years Tostan has led more than 5000 villages in Senegal to make public declarations to end the practice of female genital cutting. (Tostan prefers to call the practice FGC rather than FGM for “mutilation”.)   

And thousands of villages in neighbouring countries around Senegal in west Africa have also made public declarations. Millions of people have been reached and lives and communities transformed through Tostan.

Tostan’s grassroots movement to end FGC is now spreading throughout Africa with the potential to end the practice within a generation. This remarkable achievement has come through a unique, pioneering approach.

What is the Secret to Tostan’s Success?

Molly wanted to understand the motives driving the practice. Through talking with thousands of women in villages she discovered:

1.Mothers cut their daughters as an act of love. Cutting makes a daughter marriageable in a culture where women depend on husbands for their survival. An uncut woman would be unable to find a husband and become a social outcast, shunned and ridiculed as ‘unclean’ by other women. To cut her daughter makes her a respected member of the village, honours her family and secures her future. Although misguided, the maternal intentions are good.

2. African culture is built on interconnectedness. Change cannot be made by individuals. If one girl or a few girls are spared from being cut they risk ostracism and social disgrace. Even if a whole village stops the practice, it is not enough because people are related to members of other villages; with relatives in at least 10 other surrounding villages. So change has to occur amongst all the villages in a region. Abandoning the practice must be a collective decision.  

3. Abandoning the tradition cannot be done through force or shame, or patronising judgement. Stopping FGC must be done with respect and understanding of the beliefs and fears, motives and social needs of the people through equal, collaborative discussion.   

4. The continuation of the tradition is based on ignorance and misinformation. Women attribute the pain and health problems experienced by girls and women to bad spirits. They have not connected haemorrhaging, infection and death of girls to the cutting procedure. Nor do they know that suffering pain in urination, menstruation, sexual intercourse and childbirth is not normal.

They believe such pain is part of being a woman; that every woman suffers in the same way. They believe that cutting girls is normal and universal; that all women around the world are cut.

But through Tostan’s educational workshops in remote rural villages women have become hungry for knowledge and discovered empowerment.

Tostan’s three-part Approach to Transformation

1.Health Education: Knowledge about anatomy and health given in a respectful participatory way using creative means such as theatre, music and dance with women sharing their stories has broken through the code of silence, myths and mistaken beliefs to confront the harmful effects of cutting girls. 

2.Human Rights: Informing women that they have a right to a free choice about what’s done to their bodies, a right to health, to live without pain, to even experience sexual pleasure has changed attitudes and lives. Teaching human rights has stopped FGC as well as child marriage and domestic violence and has empowered women to take on leadership roles in their villages.

3. Public Declaration: Villages have come together to make public declarations to end FGC, which has ensured the power of collective commitment and accountability. The entire community mind set has been changed, not just isolated cases of non-conformity, with the risk of ostracism.

Bringing the harmful practice out in the open has broken the code of secrecy and created unity and powerful resolve amongst men and women, boys and girls.

Tostan has led an astonishing human rights revolution and the movement will continue until every girl is safe to grow up happy and healthy.

Be inspired: read However Long the Night by Aimee Molloy.

Read more about Tostan and become a supporter.

The Orchid Project, based in London, supports the revolutionary work of Tostan throughout Africa and the world.