Reuters Profiles Advocacy Group Trying To End Female Genital Cutting In Senegal

Reuters on Wednesday profiled the U.S.-based advocacy group Tostan, which is receiving the $1.5 million Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize Wednesday in part for its work to curb female genital cutting in Senegalese villages (Tattersall, Reuters, 9/12). Genital cutting, a practice sometimes referred to as female circumcision or female genital mutilation, involves a partial or full removal of the labia, clitoris or both. The World Health Organization estimates that 100 million to 140 million women worldwide have undergone the procedure. Senegal outlawed the practice in the 1990s (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 3/23).

According to Reuters, nearly half of the villages in Senegal, as well as 298 villages in Guinea and 23 in Burkina Faso, publicly have declared genital cutting bans since Tostan was founded in 1991. Tostan, which has 370 almost exclusively African staff, uses traditional song, poetry, theater and dance to provide information on health care, human rights and microfinance, according to Reuters. "A public declaration allows people to change a social convention like female genital cutting in security," Molly Melching, founder of Tostan, said, adding, "You can teach a woman about the symptoms of HIV/AIDS, but unless she knows she has rights, she does not dare tell her husband to use a condom" (Reuters, 9/12).

Tostan has "achieved major breakthroughs, empowering women and improving the lives of millions of people in nine African countries," Steven Hilton, president and CEO of the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, said, adding, "Through Tostan's Community Empowerment Program, villages have reduced infant and maternal mortality, ended domestic violence, improved community health services and nutrition, and provided education for their children" (Hilton Foundation release, 9/12). Tostan also receives funding from UNICEF, USAID and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Reuters, 9/12).

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