Molly Melching, founder of the Senegalese NGO, Tostan, has made the West African nation of Senegal her home for the past four decades. Molly and Tostan have received international recognition for innovative approaches and remarkable success in promoting human rights in Senegal and beyond. Tostan's model actively engages the entire community and is grounded in positive African values and traditional ways of learning. Its model supports communities as they map their vision for the future and take steps to improve health, education, governance, environmental protection, and economic empowerment. Among the most dramatic achievements has been more than 8,000 communities in eight African countries publicly abandoning the practices of female genital cutting and child marriage.
Join Molly as she discusses her journey, Tostan, and the critical need to complement top-down policies and laws with a large-scale investment at the heart of meaningful social transformation: local understanding, deliberation, and community ownership of human rights and responsibilities - and the deeper values from which they emerge.