Tostan

Tostan

Founded	1991
Founder	Molly Melching
Type	NGO
Location	Dakar, Senegal
Area served	Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Senegal, The Gambia
Employees	500+
Website	tostan.org

Tostan (meaning "breakthrough" in Wolof) is a US-registered 501(c)(3) international non-governmental organization headquartered in Dakar, Senegal. The organization's mission is "to empower communities to develop and achieve their vision for the future and inspire large-scale movements leading to dignity for all" in several West African countries, including Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, The Gambia, Mali, and Mauritania.^[1][2]

Tostan takes a holistic, integrated approach to development by facilitating human rights-based, non-formal education programs, most notably the Community Empowerment Program (CEP), which aims to support and empower participants and communities to lead their own development.^[2] The organization employs over 500 people and works to foster and promote community engagement in projects relating to literacy, health and hygiene, child welfare, human rights and democracy, environmental sustainability, and economic empowerment.^[3]

Although Tostan is best known for its success in accelerating the abandonment of harmful traditional practices, particularly female genital cutting and child marriage, across Africa, the organization has also achieved positive results in the impact areas of governance, education, health, economic empowerment, and the environment, as well as in the intersecting issues of child protection, empowerment of women and girls, and early childhood development. In 2007, Tostan received the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the world's largest humanitarian prize, for its "significant contributions to the alleviation of human suffering."^[4][5]