Before their intervention in URR, the region used to record the highest number of illiteracy and the deeply rooted cultural and traditional practises dubbed Female Genital Cutting (FGC), early and forced marriage were mostly practised in the region, something which has now drastically reduced.
The NGO focuses on areas such as community-led non-formal education, human rights, democracy, health and hygiene, child protection, early childhood development, female genital cutting, child and forced marriage and the empowerment of women and girls among others.
The Community Empowerment Programme which is a three year initiative embraces group discussions among participants with a desire to lead social change and development initiatives within their communities. During the three years CEP programme, the intervention village also sensitised neighbouring communities on what they learned from Tostan with the objectives of encouraging them to adapt to the best practises they had learned from the project.
Recently, the NGO organised a panel discussion of journalists and the community of SareJatally village in the Niani District of the Central River Region (CRR) which is a Tostan intervention site.
During the panel discussion, journalists were given the opportunity to ask the beneficiary community questions ranging from what they learned from Tostan’s CEP programme, what plans they have in place to ensure the sustainability of the project, and what the changes the project have brought to their doorsteps.
In response, the villages answered the questions perfectly and also raised some challenges they encounter. Among them are acute water shortage that the village encounters and also the bad road network linking them to the main Passamas-Laminkotohighway.
Speaking at the convergence, Hawa Suwareh, the village CMC coordinator spoke at length on the significance of the forum, saying: “It will avail us the opportunity to meet with members of the press and also tell them of the transformation the project has brought to the village.”
Tostan, she added, has significantly increased the health and hygiene of the village and also reduced the risk of the villagers taking contaminated water. “We now embark on village cleaning exercises every time with the desire of ensuring that the village is clean in order to avoid our kids from getting malaria among others. Washing our basins was a problem before, something that is now in the past,” she postulated.
“Tostan is one of the best NGO’s operating in the country especially in rural Gambia. When they came to the village, we decided to form the Committee Management Committee (CMC) which comprises different people. This is the committee that works with the rest of the villagers in ensuring that the project aim and objectives is achieved. I can tell you that if there were 16 issues affecting the village, most of the things, especially in problem solving among others, would have been addressed,” Edrisa Gassama, the Village Development Committee chairman said.
He maintains that water shortage continues to be a major challenge affecting the village. “We have to go to the next village which is Kibir in order for us to have clean and potable drinking water for our people.”
“The project has played a vital role in changing the lifestyles of the beneficiary community through learning. We have sessions with the Tostan facilitator through our local language which has helped us a lot in understanding human rights, FGC, early and forced marriage among others. We have also improved on the enrolment of our kids and retention. Due to the intervention of the project, we now have the habit of embarking on village cleaning exercises every time,” Momodou Gassama, the village youth leader, said.
Yussuf Sane, a senior official of Tostan Dakar Office, said: “The testimonies of the villagers clearly demonstrate that they are ready to learn and translate what they have learned to other communities. I am inspired by the testimonies of the participants and I am confident that they have values for their people. The programme doesn’t belong to Tostan, we are just facilitating thus the village will take the lead,” he posited.
