Dear Friends,
The members of the Pilot Committee for the Declaration of Dialacoto would
like to invite you to attend their Public Declaration for the Abandonment of
Female Genital Cutting and Early Marriage by 202 villages to be held in
Dialacoto, Region of Tambacounda, Senegal on September 21, 2003.
The NGO, Tostan, implemented the Village Empowerment Program (the Kobi) in
25 communities in the three rural communities of Missarah, Dialacoto and
Netteboulou with support from the Government of Senegal, Unicef and the
Gates foundation. Participants in the program adopted other members of the
community and visited neighboring areas to do social mobilization work,
spreading important lifesaving messages from the program to their relatives
and friends.
Six inter-community meetings were held over the past year to discuss the
promotion of good health practices such as timely vaccination, pre and post
natal consultation and birth spacing. During these meetings, community
members and religious and traditional leaders from the 202 villages together
discussed the dangers of FGC and early marriage and made the decision, as a
larger inter-marrying community, to abandon these harmful practices to
better respect the human rights and improve the health of girls and women in
their three rural communities.
Tostan also implemented micro-credit projects, latrines and health kits in
participating villages with support from AJWS and the Wallace Research
Foundation.
The communities have already established follow through committees to assure
that the decision to abandon these practices is respected by everyone.
On September 21, 1,140 villages in Senegal will have made the decision to
abandon the practice of FGC and early marriage, representing more than 20%
of the 5,000 communities which once practiced FGC. All of our communities
are proud to be part of a larger movement for life, health and human dignity
for all.
We look forward to sharing our historic decision with you and welcome you to
Dialacoto on September 21, 2003.
Greetings from Senegal,
The Members of the Pilot Committee for the Declaration of Dialacoto