From 2000 to 2003, FRONTIERS collaborated with the Senegalese nongovernmental organization Tostan to evaluate the effects of a community-based education program on awareness, attitudes, and behavior regarding reproductive health and female genital cutting. The Tostan program provides modules in local languages on hygiene, problem solving, women’s health, and human rights. It was designed to improve women’s health and promote social change by enabling participants, mainly women, to analyze and find solutions to community problems. As stated in this brief, Tostan implemented the education program as part of a scale-up effort in 90 communities in the Kolda district of southern Senegal. The FRONTIERS evaluation took place as part of the project and compared changes in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of men and women in 20 villages in the intervention area with those living in 20 nonintervention villages. Changes were measured using pre- and post-intervention surveys of women and men in the intervention and control areas and qualitative interviews with key community members. They also assessed pre- and post-intervention changes in the number of girls under 10 who had been cut.
Senegal: Community education program increases dialogue on FGC
