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Generational Change in Three Years an Ambitious Campaign to Empower Millions in West Africa

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Generational Change in Three Years an Ambitious Campaign to Empower Millions in West Africa Generational Change in Three Years An Ambitious Campaign to Empower Millions in West Africa www.tostan.org In recent years Tostan has seen historic momentum building across West Africa, most notably in the abandonment of harmful practices, the empowerment of girls and women, and the promotion of human rights. The next few years present a rare opportunity to build on that momentum to bring about large-scale change that can transform the region. The Opportunity: Creating a A young mother and her son are taking happening because of the Community Generation of ‘Firsts’ to market the food they prepared Empowerment Program, a powerful and canned last fall using a loan nonformal education model developed Today, in villages across West Africa, she received from her community’s over the past two decades. thousands of ‘firsts’ are happening. micro-credit fund - it is her first day in business. A 13 year-old girl in southeastern Senegal is standing up for the very And thousands of people from first time to speak in front of her elders dozens of communities are gathering about human rights, her right to be free to discuss for the very first time the from violence and her right to marry the potential to end female genital cutting man of her choice. and child marriage in their entire district. A decision that will create A middle-aged woman in The Gambia another first: the first generation of girls who didn’t have the chance to go to - tens of thousands of them - that will formal school is writing her very be spared these practices entirely. first sentence on a blackboard. On her cell phone, she is sending her These and countless other firsts in first text message to her brother in the the lives of African girls, women, city. families, and communities are Generational Change In Three Years The Plan: Partner with 1,000 Communities to reach more than 1.6 million people in West Africa and Deliver Generational Change in Three Years This is an ambitious, and unique opportunity, for thousands to join the movement to change the lives of millions forever. The Generational Change in Three Years campaign will create a foundation for community-led development and have the following impacts: transformational change from the leading to decision-making processes • Ending Female Genital Cutting in inside out. that involve all community members. Senegal and growing the movement Classroom dialogue, followed by for abandonment in West Africa The Generational Change in Three sharing with other community members • Reducing violence against Women Years campaign will also facilitate and nearby villages through ‘organized and Girls by ending child/forced advanced monitoring and evaluation diffusion’, creates agreement on, and marriage and domestic violence efforts across many impact areas, long-term commitment to, development • Helping children stay in school and an effort which would be difficult to objectives and social norm change. perform better through strengthened coordinate through traditional, single- parental education practices. project funding commitments. Tostan’s program has been cited as a best practice by multiple international The Methodology: Tostan’s organizations and publications, Community Empowerment including the International Center for Program - A Proven Platform for Research on Women, the Center for Community-Led Change Global Development and UNICEF. At the heart of the Generational Sustainability Change effort is Tostan’s As part of the CEP, Community internationally-recognized nonformal Management Committees (CMCs), education program. 17 member democratically-selected bodies, are trained in the management The three-year Community skills necessary to implement long Empowerment Program (CEP) engages term development projects. The CMCs The specific scaling model will participants using familiar methods of embody our vision for sustainable empower 1.6 million people as we help communication such as dialogue and development: democratic, community- drive a mass movement for positive exchange, theater, poetry, and song, based organizations working with social change across West Africa over while addressing topics of high interest. partners to meet community needs and three years. improve the wellbeing of all community It begins with a year of discussion and members. By coordinating our work in 1,000 action on democracy and human rights, communities at once, we will be able problem-solving, and hygiene and Over time, many CMCs register as to not only deliver key results but health. It then moves on to numeracy, official community-based organizations do so more efficiently, by reducing management, budgeting, and small (CBOs) in their respective countries. administrative costs, streamlining project implementation, and literacy This helps ensure that funds, projects, reporting protocols, and ensuring through SMS text messaging. and campaigns are managed in a secure cash-flow - in short enabling transparent and professional manner. Tostan to focus on what we do best The CEP promotes the development - empower communities to create and use of critical thinking skills 800 people avg. per community x 1,000 communities + 1,000 adopted communities through organized diffusion = 1.6m people impacted Tostan is an international nonprofit headquartered in Dakar, Senegal. We are currently implementing our Community Empowerment Program in eight countries in West and East Africa and have spent over 20 years developing a way to put communities in charge of their own futures. Working in Partnership Tostan: Deeply Rooted in Get Involved Tostan works with local government, Africa and with Over 20 Years’ civil society, NGOs and international Experience This is an ambitious effort to raise the partners to implement our Community funds needed to changes the lives of Empowerment Program in eight Tostan is an international nonprofit millions of people, and we need your countries in Africa. Moreover, we have headquartered in Dakar, Senegal. help. set up our Empowered Communities We are currently implementing our Network (ECN) to assist communities Community Empowerment Program For every $4 raised we can support to partner with other organizations. in eight countries in West and East people across six countries to realize a Through the ECN, we connect trained Africa, and we have spent 20 years brighter, safer, more productive future. CMCs with NGO partners, micro- developing a way to put communities finance institutions, businesses, in charge of their own futures. We are • Donate at: government authorities, and other dedicated to being headquartered in www.tostan.org/generationalchange service providers so they can access Africa and always putting communities • Learn more about our story by resources and funding to continue their first. Over 95 percent of our staff are reading However Long the Night: community-led development projects. African, and the hiring and training of Molly Melching’s Journey to Help African staff is a priority. Millions of African Women and Girls Triumph on sale April 30th The results of our We have been recognized for our work community-led model by the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian • Contact us to talk about getting Prize, the UNESCO King Sejong involved on a deeper level through speak for themselves: Literacy Prize, the Skoll Award for your organization, foundation or Social Entrepreneurship (SASE), the workplace giving program. • More than 200,000 Anna Lindh Award for Human Rights, Jen Hedrick people directly and over two and others. Chief Operating Officer million indirectly impacted [email protected] Our approach to FGC abandonment • Female genital cutting and has been integrated into national and Gannon Gillespie international strategies including the Director of Strategic Development child/forced marriage publicly Donor’s Working Group on FGM/C [email protected] abandoned by over 6,500 and ten UN agencies. In Senegal, the communities Government has adopted a National Action Plan that calls for using the We look forward to • Significant increases in human rights approach pioneered by you joining us! Tostan to end FGC by 2015. women’s participation and community leadership • Increased protection of children’s rights • Reduced violence against women and girls • Increased enrollment of girls in school..
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