Tostan Inc.

Marième Bamba is a pillar of her community, leading holistic, sustainable transformation in her village and beyond. She never got the chance to go to school, was married at the age of 12, and bore her first child at 13 years old. Today, her life has completely changed – she serves as a member of her village’s Community Management Committee and is a Social Mobilization Agent for the abandonment of Female Genital Cutting. This change came about as Marième participated in Tostan’s three-year Community Empowerment Program, where she  learned vital skills through human rights-based empowering education, the ability to read and write, social mobilization, local democracy and income-generation and project management. Using the broad skills and knowledge she’s gained, Marième is a leader for the development and holistic well-being of her village – as it is defined by the community themselves.  “Before Tostan’s program…we lacked important information because we hadn’t...