Molly Melching, Founder and Executive Director of Tostan, will discuss "Mass Abandonment of Female Genital Cutting in Africa."

Thursday, February 15, 2007
6:00 PM - 8:00 PM
Hillel at UCLA
574 Hilgard Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90095

Information forwarded from Ariel Stevenson, Co-director of PJSA at UCLA

Living and working in Senegal for over 32 years, Molly Melching has dedicated her life to the empowerment of communities at the grassroots level.  In 1991, she founded the Tostan, a community based NGO.  Tostan has resulted in the abandonment of Female Genital Cutting (FGC) by over 1900 communities in Senegal, reductions in infant and maternal mortality, increases in school and birth registrations, and the emergence of female leaders. 
 
Melching will be discussing the success of Tostan in Africa.  Since its genesis, entire villages in Africa, particularly the lives of women and girls, are changing through Tostan's unique non-formal education process, which focuses on human rights and democracy along with basic education, leadership, and problem solving.  Through a program that empowers women and allows communities to change from within, cultural traditions such as female genital cutting and child marriages are voluntarily being abandoned.
 
Free, delicious, vegetarian dinner will be provided!

All are welcome!
For any questions, email: Pjsa.ucla@gmail.com

Ariel Stevenson
pjsa.ucla@gmail.com

Sponsor(s): Progressive Jewish Student Association at UCLA. Information about non-ASC events is posted at the request of the sender for informational purposes and does not reflect opinions of or endorsements by African Studies personnel.