Working with schools in Senegal to end FGC

Wednesday 26 February 2014

Starting in December 2012, Tostan social mobilization teams funded by Orchid Project have embarked on monthly missions to villages throughout Senegal to raise awareness about human rights and harmful traditional practices, including female genital cutting (FGC). Last month, however, the social mobilization team and Tostan staff in the Kolda region of Senegal added something new; they organized the first Orchid Project-funded awareness-raising event in a local school. While the discussions facilitated during the monthly social mobilization missions involve entire communities, this school event focused on a dialogue specifically among educators, parents, and students. 

Ibrahima Sabaly School in the district of Bonconto hosted the first two-day awareness-raising event on January 16-17, 2014. Previously, Tostan approached the school’s director, Alioune Diallo, to see what he thought of hosting and helping to coordinate the event. It was intended to gather the teachers, parents, and children of the school to talk about the importance of education and how to overcome barriers to receiving an education, including child/forced marriage and health barriers caused by FGC and early pregnancy. Diallo considered the event to be such a valuable opportunity for awareness-raising that rather than merely including participants from his school, he invited the school director from each of the 16 schools in the Bonconto district as well as the parent of one student from each school. He wanted to ensure that the information shared through this event would spread to as many people as possible. In total, 50 people attended the first day of the awareness-raising event and 78 attended the second day.

Participants listening to discussion

Participants listening to discussion

The program for the two half-days included a variety of activities. On the first day, a group of elementary and middle school students performed a skit on the topic of preventing early pregnancy in front of those in attendance. The attendees were later divided into two groups, one of educators and one of parents, and asked to discuss various questions. The groups were asked to list the traditional practices that are common in their society as well as the justifications for each of these practices. The following day, these groups came together to share the results of their discussion: FGC and child/forced marriage were among the traditional practices cited by the groups, and reasons given for their continuation were a lack of basic education and a desire to respect tradition.

The other important component of the second day of the awareness-raising event was the creation of two different actions plans, one by the educators and one by the parents. Each group outlined a series of activities that it hoped to carry out to further mobilize the population around the issues of education and rights of children, especially girls. Souaybou Baldé, a mother speaking on behalf of the Parents’ Association, told the assembly that their association planned to share the outcomes of this workshop with other schools and communities in the district.

In his closing remarks at the event, Alioune Diallo said, “Every society hopes to see its children grow up and become responsible citizens who contribute to the development of their community.” Awareness-raising campaigns such as this one help to make sure that this can happen. By promoting positive social norms and encouraging girls to stay in school, today’s youth will have a better chance of growing up to be healthy and successful promoters of their communities’ development. In the coming months, five more school campaigns will be organized in the Kolda, Sedhiou, Matam, and Podor regions of Senegal. We hope that these future events will prove to be just as well-received by communities as last month’s event in Bonconto.

 

Story by Allyson Fritz, Tostan.

Photos by Finte Boiro, Tostan.

 

This blog is part of a series on the Social Mobilisation project that Orchid Project funds in support of Tostan’s long term Community Empowerment Programme. Social Mobilisation is focused on ensuring the acceleration of abandonment of FGC in Senegal. Teams of volunteers who have already abandoned FGC, called social mobilisation agents, visit and create dialogue with inter-connected communities on human rights and the negative consequences of FGC. Their work aims to spread the message of abandonment and encourage others to join them.

Social mobilisation agents are individual members of the community who have been inspired by their understanding that FGC is a harmful practices, and are eager to share their own experiences with others. Often, they are religious, traditional or community leaders who are widely respected and well-connected, active, influential participants.

You can find out more about Social Mobilisation by clicking here. If you would like to support this work, please click here