By: Nyima Sillah
Tostan’s social mobilizer in Kuntaur Jakaba Aja Fatoumatta Jabbie has said the Tostan project has contributed to the eradication of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in CRR and boosted girls’ education in the region.
The project implemented by ChildFund and UNFPA aims to protect children and empower women.
In an interview with the press during the ChildFund country-wide tour, Aja Fatoumatta Jabbie said since the inception of the Tostan project, FGM has not been practiced within the CRR region, citing that the practitioners of the harmful traditional practice were unenlightened about the implications of FGM on girls.
“The practice engenders fistula in women, which is very challenging, but now the majority of people in the communities are aware of the impact of this practice through Tostan,” she explained.
She pointed out that sensitizing people on FGM comes with challenges but they know how to approach people as they enlighten them on the negative impact of the practice at the outset, preventive measures, and the harm it does to girls.
“We don’t use any coercive approach because it’s a deeply-rooted traditional practice and if you want to forcefully eliminate it, it won’t work. Some would prefer facing the law than accepting the reality because they don’t know,” Jabbie explained.
She further stated that they also sensitize communities on the impact of early marriage on children’s education, asserting that child marriage was rampant before the coming of Tostan but now, it has drastically reduced as they extended their advocacy to various schools and teachers to sensitize them on the harmful practices, and the social behavior of children with their parents.
She extolled ChildFund for the project and encouraged them to expand the support as it will change the livelihoods of many people.
Edrisa Keita, national coordinator of Tostan Gambia acknowledged the support of ChildFund in the implementation of the project, asserting that ChildFund’s support was a great boost to the program’s implementation.
He explained that they have two funding streams from ChildFund; one of them was seed funds which were committed to supporting organizations, conducting, media and social mobilization and sharing information to empower communities around the health implications of gender-based violence such as FGM/C, child marriage and other economic and social empowerment activities that affect the lives and livelihoods of women and girls in The Gambia.
He stated that within that framework, they did a lot of engagements with chiefs, Alkalolu, religious leaders and traditional leaders, both in the Upper River Region and Central River Region, asserting that more than 500 people were engaged at different decentralized levels to make sure that everyone was on board.
Keita further explained that as part of the project, they also did a three-day training seminar with 40 religious leaders as they are critical in the discussions, regarding human rights. He asserted that religious leaders play a vital role in disseminating information, hence engaging them to understand more about their approach to the community well-being model and to also discuss with them the stance of religion in terms of human rights, especially women and children.
“All these engagements were done, and they were successfully executed through the support of ChildFund and UNFPA within the context of their program,” said Keita
