Molly Melching
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Molly Melching is the founder and executive director of Tostan (meaning "breakthrough" in the Wolof language), a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) whose mission it is to empower African communities for sustainable development and social transformation in the respect of human rights. Tostan and Melching have gained international notoriety thanks to the work of Tostan's partner communities to abandon female genital cutting and child/forced marriage in Senegal, Guinea and Burkina Faso after having participated in the three-year, nonformal, human rights-based Tostan Community Empowerment Program. To date, 2,996 communities have abandoned FGC in Senegal through a public declaration, over half of the 5,000 estimated to have practiced in 1997. To date in Guinea, 298 communities have declared, and 20 have declared in Burkina Faso.
Melching's expertise is in developing educational materials for use at the village level in Africa, and she helped create the Tostan Community Empowerment Program (CEP). Melching's work along with Senegalese communities has also contributed to several innovative community development and communication techniques including the model of organized diffusion of information and the use of the public declaration for the abandonment of FGC and child/forced marriage.
In 1999, she received the Humanitarian Alumni Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and in 2002, the Sargent Shriver Distinguished Award for Humanitarian Service.
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[edit] Early Work in Senegal
While a student at the University of Dakar in 1974, Molly developed an interest in working with children. She wrote an illustrated children’s book, Anniko, which was published by the New African Editions (NEA). In November 1976, she joined the Peace Corps on an individual placement to continue developing and publishing books for Senegalese children tailored to their culture and environment. To accomplish this, Molly created the "Demb ak Tey" (Yesterday and Today) Center, which opened in the African Cultural Center, and served street children in the most populated area of Dakar, the Medina. Using songs, stories, proverbs, theater and other oral African traditions, Molly and her Senegalese team promoted children's literature pertaining to West African culture. Seeing the popularity of traditional African stories and their potential as a vehicle for education, Molly began a weekly radio program in Wolof, a major national language of Senegal. By including messages on health and the environment, the radio program reached thousands of families with relevant information for improving their lives.
In 1982, Molly was awarded a grant from the Spencer Foundation to continue her activities, which encouraged her to remain in Senegal. She moved the children's center to the village of Saam Njaay in the region of Thiès. In collaboration with community members, she and her Senegalese team developed a basic, nonformal education program for rural populations based on their traditions and culture. This program, funded by USAID, was so successful that many other NGOs soon adopted it.
Molly began collaborating with UNICEF/Senegal in 1988 to improve and expand this nonformal education program to other languages and regions of Senegal. Recognizing women’s crucial role within their own communities as well as the whole of Senegalese society, Molly took note of these women’s distinctive need for literacy training and other kinds of basic education. With UNICEF’s support, the program was extended to thousands of women throughout the country and was also adapted for at-risk, out-of-school adolescents using a basic life skills approach.
[edit] Years at Tostan
In 1991, Molly took the collective lessons and pedagogies developed in Saam Njaay and created a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, Tostan. Tostan's centerpiece is the program Molly and others developed in Samm Ndiaye, Senegal: The Community Empowerment Program (CEP) is targeted at both adult and adolescent learners, and is always delivered in local languages. The nonformal education approach is based on human rights, and is divided into two modules: the Kobi (meaning "to till the soil"), covering democracy, human rights, problem-solving skills, health and hygiene; and the Aawde (meaning "to plant the seed"), covering local language literacy, small enterprise development, and mathematics.
The Tostan program has had a considerable impact on the lives of Senegalese women, empowering them to make important decisions affecting their own lives and that of their families. Tostan participants have begun health and hygiene improvement projects leading to the reduction of maternal and infant mortality rates. They have ended violence against women through peaceful protest; dramatically increased rates of vaccinations and pre- and post-natal consultation; and led campaigns to enroll girls in school and register thousands of children who had no official birth certificates. They have even begun implementing successful and sustainable income generating activities. Women now participate in decision-making processes and are emerging as confident and effective leaders.
Molly recognized that the Senegalese themselves, and not outsiders, must be the ones to carry forward this culminating social transformation. On July 31, 1997, the Senegalese began a major social movement. One group of Tostan participants from the village of Malicounda Bambara decided to abandon the ancient practice of FGC in their community. This tradition is a social convention in 28 countries of Africa, required in many ethnic groups for girls to marry and become respected members of the community. Since the 1997 declaration in Malicounda Bambara, 2.996 other communities representing about 50% of the communities that practice FGC in Senegal, have also made public declarations to end this tradition along with ending child/forced marriage. Their decision was motivated by the understanding that these traditional practices are harmful to the health of girls and women, and therefore, violations of their human rights and not in accordance with their religious and cultural values. In 2001, Tostan and Mwangaza, a NGO in Burkino Faso, empowered 23 villages in that country to end FGC through public declaration on May 3, 2003. In Guinea, 298 villages, both Tostan-trained communities and nonparticipating villages, have participated in two public declarations: In Lalya, Middle Guinea in December 2006 and Tougnifily, Lower Guinea in June 2007.
[edit] Distinctions and Recognition
In 1995, UNESCO chose Tostan as one of the most innovative education programs throughout the world and published a brochure on the Tostan experience. In 1999, Molly Melching was awarded the University of Illinois Alumni Humanitarian Prize and in 2002, the Sargent Shriver Distinguished Award for Humanitarian Service at the 40th Celebration of the Peace Corps. To date, many international films, radio programs, newspaper and magazine articles have been produced on Tostan, the Community Empowerment Program, and Molly herself. In 1997, Ms. Hillary Clinton, wife of then President Bill Clinton, visited a Tostan village and in 1998, both Hillary and The President paid a special visit to the Tostan program.
Molly continuously listens to feedback from Tostan participants and adapts Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program, including its methodology and approach, to meet the changing needs of the villagers, always preserving the dignity of the populations she serves through respectful consultation. Through years of experimentation, Tostan has confirmed the importance of human rights education in the process of improving health and other socioeconomic factors in standards of living. In October of 2003, World Health Organization chose Tostan’s basic education approach as a “Best Practice Model” for community development and ending FGC, calling for further replication and dissemination of the model to other African nations. In 2005, Tostan won the Anna Lindh Prize for Human Rights, and in 2007 Tostan won two awards: the UNESCO King Sejong Prize for Literacy, and the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the largest humanitarian prize in the world.
