Since we began, our human rights-based education program has reached more than five million people across eight African countries.
Women’s Empowerment
women have been selected into leadership positions in their communities, with many running for public office
Health
people live in communities that publicly declared their intention to end female genital cutting
Child Marriage
communities have publicly declared that their daughters will not marry before the age of 18
The Tostan Model
Our three-year, non-formal education program puts rural communities in charge of their own futures. We support our partner communities to define and fulfill their own vision for wellbeing, allowing them to create positive and lasting social transformation. Our approach is:
HUMAN RIGHTS BASED
Knowledge of human rights and responsibilities forms the foundation for learning
RESPECTFUL & INCLUSIVE
Information is shared in a non-judgmental and participatory way, using local languages
HOLISTIC & SUSTAINABLE
The program has impact across multiple issues, with sustainability at its core
Ndéye Fatou’s Story: Walk On My Own
In Walk On My Own, 13-year-old Ndeye Fatou Fall tells the story of her community in Senegal and the social transformation they have sparked to end harmful practices and ensure education, self-determination and wellbeing for girls and women.
News and Stories
Shifting social norms in southwest Ethiopia: What Lale learned at the Tostan Training Center
“My experience at the Tostan Training Center was extremely insightful,” says Lale Labuko, “and greatly impacted my way of thinking and leading, as well as the course of action at Omo Hope. It helped me to see a different approach to solving our current challenges....
Community comes together to support young Hawa’s education
Hawa is a 14-year-old girl from Sare Mamudou, one of the 30 communities undergoing Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program (CEP) in the Gambia. She is an exemplary student who ranked first of her 6th grade class in early 2019. Hawa’s father passed away when she was in...
Empowered CMC leads the way to sustainable health for women and children in Song Kunda!
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” This African proverb is ever so fitting to Song Kunda, a remote village located in the Upper River Region, Kantora District, and one of the first villages in the Gambia to participate in...
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“Assalam aleykoum. I thank everyone for having chosen me coordinator of the Community Management Committee for the children of Sare Keita, you will never regret the choice made to my modest person thank you.” Région Kolda, Senegal #StrengtheningDemocracy #YouthRising
"I am a project officer at Maison de la Gare in Senegal. I am very honored to have had the chance to attend this training. Tostan was able to show us simple concepts that we can adopt to truly have an impact in our organisations and communities. Listening to others, knowing how to communicate effectively, and creating a common vision are some of these concepts. This experience also helped reinforce my ideas for my own professional and personal goal setting. I learned about others and myself. For example, I really appreciated what I learned about sensitivity to others. My colleagues and I are already sensitive and respectful people because of the nature of our work with street children but the way we interact with each other sometimes gets lost with all the effort we have to put in for our shared work. Therefore, taking what I have learned at Tostan, I want to facilitate team-building exercises with my colleagues to encourage our working better with one another. I am truly very touched to have been a part of this training!” - Ndeye Diodio Calloga #DignityforAll
"I represent the Child Youth Protection Foundation in Nigeria. I am based in the capital, Abuja. I am completing the ten-day training at Tostan in Thies, Senegal and I must say that it has been phenomenal. Being in the field of child protection for the past twelve years I have found some new methods through the Community Empowerment Program. I find this to be a revolution in community-based work; the methodologies of Tostan are outstanding, most especially the strategy of organized diffusion which empowers communities to make decisions. It has really touched my heart seeing communities that have been impacted by the Tostan methodology continuing to do work and empower their communities 10-15 years after Tostan. I think the rest of Africa has a lot to learn. Tostan’s theory of community-led change is a theory that many of us in my organization need to learn and get empowered. I was also impacted and motivated by Tostan’s human rights teachings, the positive framing of human rights messages and also giving the communities the opportunities to teach these human rights principles in the simplest ways. I want to say thank you to Tostan for this and I hope to see everyone again soon!" - Olatosimi Adenola Kolawole
"I am a presbyterian pastor and am excited about the community-led approach used by Tostan. It encourages the community to own their own solutions and to lead the transformative agenda. For me that is important because it is high time stop packaging solutions and dumping them onto communities. These kind of solutions are usually rejected because it is not respectful, and lasting solutions has to do with the development of the human being. As a religious leader I am happy to see how Tostan aligns human rights with religion. Tostan has learned how to show religious leaders that these concepts exist within the religious texts. When I go back
to Ghana I plan to organize a training during the National Women’s Conference so that in upwards of 3,000 women will eventually be trained on how to identify human rights principles within the Bible. I am very excited about the prospect of this training." - Abraham Opoku-Baffour of Ghana #DignityforAll
“Now we talk about early pregnancies of young girls. We faced this situation head on, and we’ve reached goals in the community of Djiredji. We thank Tostan profoundly. Inshallah.” - Awa Faty of Djirédji, Senegal
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