From July 12 to July 21st, Shaheeda and Mariya attended Tostan’s Training Center (TTC) in Senegal. The TTC is an international training course designed to teach participants about its human rights-based approach to community-led development, which the NGO has developed and updated in response to feedback from thousands of communities in different socio-cultural African contexts over the past 20 years.
During this third training session hosted by Tostan, participants came from fifteen countries and included community activists, members of local, national and international organizations, of governments, as well as representatives from academia and the media.
The training focuses on using a participatory, learner-centered approach that draws its strengths from the expertise of trainers with extensive experience in rural Africa, implementing the Tostan Community Empowerment Program and is designed to serve individuals and groups who share a commitment to human dignity, transformative learning, holistic empowerment, and collective action.
Mariya and Shaheeda attended the TTC as Orchid Project Fellows. The Orchid Project is a UK based NGO that advocates for a world free of FGC. As fellows, Mariya and Shaheeda were asked to keep video journals of their experience. To learn more about their experience, click on the links below:
You can also take a look at Gbosa – Tostan Training Center’s July 2016 English Cohort Storify transcript for more details.
In the following months, Mariya and Shaheeda will be writing several articles detailing their experience and learnings from the TTC as well.
See also Sahiyo heads to Senegal for Tostan Training Centre.