Fred de Sam Lazaro:
He traveled village to village with his story and guidebook, urging people at Tostan classes to attend a declaration event like the one in Dialakoto.
These are a critical step in normalizing a social change. For communities considering abandoning female genital cutting, one last concern is, will they be ostracized for abandoning a time-honored tradition? The hope from these gatherings is that they can be an instant cure for that stigma.
As one person put it to me, everyone now sees that everyone else is doing it. Melching says that that decision to abandon is just one part of a holistic approach to improving life in communities. She took me to Sam Ndiaye, the village where it all started decades ago. After a ceremonial welcome, we were shown the latest vision board, a development wish list for the next 10 years, illustrated by hand in a community when not all adults can read.
The most pressing priority, adding a doctor to the nurse who now heads the health center they brought to the village a few years ago.
So none of this existed when you moved into this village?
