Tostan founder Molly Melching was a featured speaker at The Daily Beast’s Women in the World summit.

Melching’s organization Tostan is a global leader in the movement to stop genital cutting, an initiative we’ve featured here on AOC, not only because we support the end of FGC, but also because Tostan has succeeded in transferring power and decision-making about FGC to a local village level in Senegal.

As a white woman and transplant to Africa, Ms Melching was somewhat reluctant to become a leader in such a sensitive cultural practice. The women disagreed, saying “This isn’t about you; it’s about us. We are Tostan.”

When Melching began educating village women in 1997 a local Muslim leader named Demba Diawara came to tell Melching that Tostan’s program was leading to trouble.

“This isn’t the way to end female genital cutting,” he said. “Change has to come from within.” So Melching asked the Islamic leader how he would approach the problem. “I would put on my shoes and walk to all the surrounding communities,” he said. Since women from one village marry the men of another, it’s crucial that both communities accept the end of the practice, so that women don’t find themselves isolated, ostracized, and unable to find suitable husbands, he explained. Ending female genital cutting was never going to happen until all the villages decided to abandon the practice together. via The Daily Beast

Hitting the road, Tostan has become so effective in empowering villages to end the practice of female genital cutting that today 4,229 communities out of 5,000 in Senegal have abandoned the practice.

Molly Melching didn’t travel alone to the Women in the World summit. As you will hear, she brought a village leader and colleague Marietou Diarra, who shared a heart-breaking story about female genital cutting and her personal efforts now on behalf of her culture — and women — to change the practice.

Yes, the tears were running down my cheeks, but the important fact is what has happened since this sad story. Like so many women in Africa, Marietou Diarra took action.

A Mother’s Worst Nightmare

The efforts to end Female Genital Cutting are so widespread in Senegal that last month the government announced a comprehensive strategy for achieving its goal of nationwide abandonment by 2015.

The National Action Plan for FGC Abandonment 2010-2015 will focus on three key components of the Tostan strategy: using a respectful, “human rights approach” to engaging communities, engaging social networks through an “organized diffusion” model of communications, and supporting public declarations for the abandonment of FGC.

The Action Plan also stresses the importance of working with populations in the regions where FGC is most commonly practiced,Saint Louis, Matam, Kaolack, Tambacounda,and Kolda─regions which are among the poorest of Senegal.

Tostan-Empowering Communities to Abandon Female Genital Cutting (FGC)

Prior to the New York summit bringing together 300 of the world’s women in early March 2010, a massive public declaration took place in the Kedougou Region of Senegal. On Sunday, February 21, over 300 communities came together to declare an end to the practice at a regional level, marking one of the largest such events todate.

In posting stories about Tostan from Fall 2009, we can see the tally of Senagalese communities abandoning FGC rising quickly.

Even more exciting is the reality that Tostan is training village leaders across Africa to use their community-empowerment model to end FGC in other countries. We wrote articles previously about Tostan’s new efforts outside of Senegal.

Representatives from 13 countries at the Public Declaration against FGC at Manneh Kunda, The Gambia, Oct. 25, 2009On their website is news that the government of The Gambia is also using Tostan’s guidance to start a program there.

Once the Tostan organization has gained the trust of local village leaders and governments, the possibility of change on other fronts for women — a focus on maternal health and early marriage, for example — also show great promise.

With all the challenges about what doesn’t work in everyone’s best efforts to improve women’s lives globally, the Tostan project is a shining star of collaborative success in Africa.Bravo, Molly Melching and all the participants in the Tostan project.

We are very proud of you all as an example of how we, too, can become better human beings by following your lead for changes in women’s lives! Anne