Aid group stresses link between human rights and development

Children ranging from tiny to pint-sized romp on a plastic mat in the shade of a mango tree. It is a hot, late-September day in this West African village, and the toddlers' mothers are also enjoying the shade as they chat and pick stones out of calabash bowls filled with rice.

They need little prompting to start singing the praises of Tostan, a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that recently won a major humanitarian award for its innovative development strategy here and in five other African countries.

"Tostan did everything for us," says Ami Diop, one of the mothers. "Before, I couldn't read or write, now I can." The other women chime in: Tostan helped our health center; they built a community center; because of Tostan, we don't circumcise our daughters any more.

Tostan has also given microcredit loans to women and donated chickens to breed and sell. Most recently, it gave two cows to the youths in the village. The mothers hope the young people will learn how to profit from the cattle and not leave for the city to find work.

Tostan (which means "breakthrough" in Wolof, the language widely spoken here) was founded in Senegal in 1991. The aid organization also works in Mauri­tania, Guinea, Somalia, Djibouti, and The Gambia. The group aims to promote human rights, public health, and literacy through programs stressing local languages and traditional culture.

But Tostan's leaders would be the first to say that they didn't create the changes the women in Ker Simbara cite – the villagers themselves did.

"We don't make initiatives for them," says Issa Saka, Tostan's grass-roots communications officer. "We wait for them to make decisions themselves, and we help them in terms of implementation."

It is a simple concept, but one at which few other NGOs have succeeded. Billions of dollars have been invested to address Africa's poverty and the related problems of low literacy, poor nutrition, and the spread of AIDS and other diseases. Yet Africa consistently ranks at the bottom in terms of development and economics.

An emphasis on human rights

Tostan's success, it seems, comes from its novel approach: "When people learn their rights," says Khalidou Sy, Tostan's program director in Senegal, "they begin to demand that those rights be respected." They look for ways to change their lives and community to make that possible.

This approach – to start with human rights, and the rest will follow – has gained the aid group international recognition. In August, it won the $1.5-million Conrad N. Hilton prize, the world's largest humanitarian award. Past winners have included Doctors Without Borders and the International Rescue Committee. Tostan was chosen from among 250 nominees.

"What made Tostan stand out as unique is its incredible ability to help people make decisions for themselves," says Judy Miller, vice president of the Hilton Foundation, which created the prize, "to prepare them with all the information, the skills, and the knowledge, and then train them so that they can actually set their goals and work together and move forward to help everybody in village life."

Ker Simbara villagers Dousso Konaté and Demba Diawara are examples of where that success can lead. The two have been to more than 170 villages across Senegal to spread the vision of human rights they learned from Tostan. Ms. Konaté says she never intended to be a human rights activist. Like many, she was drawn in by the promise of education.

"They taught me to write my name and to read it," she says. From then on, she says, she was eager to continue to participate in Tostan's program to see what else she might gain.

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