Why so Bakau? i believe if we write sensitively every subject can be
discuss. I am a Mandingo who advocat that FGM is not useful if the
reason is only trying to control women's sexual drive. Now a days,
immorality is linked to poverty and lack of good and strong parenting.
female circumcission is discuss distintly from FGM. The campaigners
categorise all of it in one basket. The debate is now focusing on
identifying the different forms. I have writen on the forms which may
be publish in the coming days. Islam doesn't require a woman to be
circumcise to be a good Muslim. Which is what require the faithfuls
attention if religion is the yardstick use.
Thanks anyway Bakau.
Suntou Bolonba...

On Wed, Oct 28, 2009 at 2:13 PM, bakau bakau <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> [ This e-mail is posted to Gambia|Post e-Gathering by bakau bakau <[log in to unmask]> ]
>
>
> Interesting story but boy is this No Comment TV !
>
>
> --- On Wed, 10/28/09, suntou touray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> From: suntou touray <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: [>-<] FGM a developing story
>> To: [log in to unmask], "The Gambia and related-issues mailing list" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009, 10:02 AM
>> [ This e-mail is posted to
>> Gambia|Post e-Gathering by suntou touray <[log in to unmask]>
>> ]
>>
>>
>> Message sent to me from the U.S base human right Body
>> Toscan:
>>
>> MOVEMENT TO ABANDON FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING AND CHILD/FORCED
>> MARRIAGE
>> IN THE GAMBIA GROWS AS 13 VILLAGES MAKE PUBLIC DECLARATION
>>
>> In the second declaration in five months in The Gambia, 13
>> villages
>> declare abandonment of harmful traditional practices to
>> Gambian,
>> National, and International media as well as diaspora
>> community
>> members worldwide
>>
>> MANNEH KUNDA, THE GAMBIA October 25, 2009 – On Sunday, 13
>> Mandinka
>> villages from the Upper River Region (URR) of The Gambia
>> joined a
>> growing movement in the country and in East and West Africa
>> as they
>> publicly declared their abandonment of female genital
>> cutting (FGC)
>> and child/forced marriage.
>>
>> The declaration signaled the commitment of all 13 villages
>> to abandon
>> these and other harmful practices in order to promote and
>> protect
>> human rights.  It was also a call to other Mandinka
>> communities in The
>> Gambia, West Africa, and diaspora communities worldwide, to
>> join them
>> in abandoning these practices.
>>
>> The village of Manneh Kunda, approximately three kilometers
>> from
>> Basse, the largest town in the eastern-most part of the
>> country,
>> hosted the declaration event which was attended by hundreds
>> of people.
>> In attendance were government officials, the Director of
>> the Women's
>> Bureau, the UNICEF Representative for the URR, other NGOs,
>> neighboring
>> villages, and religious and traditional leaders from the
>> URR.
>>
>> The program included singing, dancing, and skits that
>> depicted the
>> reasoning behind this collective decision all performed by
>> the URR
>> National Troop and local youth groups celebrating the
>> declaration.
>> There were also several guest speakers, including local
>> UNICEF
>> Representative, Mariama Sabally, who spoke about Tostan’s
>> respectful
>> and non-judgmental approach, noting that it had enabled
>> Tostan to
>> succeed in shifting a deeply ingrained social tradition.
>>
>> Yayhu Bangura, a local religious scholar instrumental in
>> the social
>> mobilization campaign that led to this declaration,
>> reiterated that
>> FGC is not a part of the Islamic faith and called on people
>> present to
>> help spread this information. Two former cutters from
>> villages taking
>> part in the declaration also testified, sang, and danced at
>> the event.
>> One woman explained how through Tostan she had come to
>> understand that
>> the health problems experienced by some girls, including
>> death, were
>> caused by the cutting rather than by witchcraft. Based on
>> this
>> information and her involvement in the Tostan’s Community
>> Empowerment
>> Program (CEP), she voluntarily gave up cutting.
>>
>> Closing the event, Regional Governor Yadi Nget expressed
>> his support
>> for the Tostan program and the declaration. He thanked the
>> community
>> members and Tostan, emphasizing in particular that the CEP
>> teaches
>> communities how to solve their own problems and explaining
>> that this
>> fosters and facilitates peace in the region.
>>
>> This event was the second public declaration for the
>> abandonment of
>> FGC and child/forced marriage in The Gambia organized by
>> communities
>> of the Mandinka ethnic group. The first Gambian declaration
>> of 24
>> communities took place in Darsilameh on 14 June, 2009.
>>
>> According to the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey
>> (2005/2006: UNICEF,
>> World Bank, and The Gambia Bureau of Statistics), the
>> national
>> prevalence rate of FGC in The Gambia is 78% percent, with a
>> 99%
>> prevalence rate in the URR. According to the same data
>> source, the
>> prevalence of child/forced marriage in rural areas of the
>> country is
>> as high as 45%.
>>
>> The communities leading this movement have participated in
>> the CEP
>> implemented by the NGO Tostan in collaboration with UNICEF,
>> the
>> Women’s Bureau of the Government of The Gambia and two
>> local NGOs –
>> Wuli And Sanda Development Agency and the National Youth
>> Association
>> for Food Security – since 2006.
>>
>> The Tostan CEP is a 3-year non-formal education program
>> comprised of
>> modules on democracy, human rights, problem-solving,
>> hygiene and
>> health, as well as literacy, math, and basic management
>> skills. Social
>> mobilization committees led by each of the communities
>> traveled to
>> surrounding villages to share and discuss the content of
>> the CEP.
>> Finally, a weekly radio program produced by Tostan
>> discussed the
>> content of the CEP classes to a much larger audience.
>>
>> The CEP has facilitated similar successes elsewhere;
>> including, to
>> date, the abandonment of FGC by 4,229 communities in
>> Senegal, Guinea,
>> Burkina Faso, The Gambia and most recently, on October 5,
>> in the
>> Northeast Zone of Somalia, Puntland.
>>
>> Molly Melching, Executive Director of Tostan, believes the
>> key to the
>> success of the Tostan model of community empowerment lies
>> in its
>> holistic and respectful approach. “Tostan meets people
>> where they are.
>> The CEP provides information about health, hygiene, and
>> human rights
>> while also providing a forum for dialogue among all members
>> of the
>> community and their extended family network. This empowers
>> communities
>> to identify issues within the community and provides the
>> community
>> members themselves with the tools to find their own
>> solutions.”
>>
>> Further information:
>>
>> Tostan is a US 501(c)(3) nongovernmental organization based
>> in the
>> West African country of Senegal. Tostan works primarily in
>> rural
>> regions to promote basic education and increase community
>> engagement
>> in projects related to health and hygiene, child welfare,
>> human rights
>> and democracy, the environment, literacy, and economic
>> development.
>>
>> Tostan is committed to innovative and effective means of
>> facilitating
>> community-led development.  In 2009, Tostan launched
>> the Solar Power
>> Project in collaboration with the Barefoot College in
>> India, training
>> mothers and grandmothers to provide solar energy and
>> training in solar
>> engineering to their communities. Walking the Path of
>> Unity, a film
>> produced in collaboration with the community of Diégoune
>> in rural
>> Senegal to publicize their abandonment of FGC and to
>> encourage
>> communities elsewhere to do the same, has recently been
>> selected for
>> the UNICEF International Children’s Rights Film Festival
>> to take place
>> in locations worldwide during November.
>>
>> Tostan is currently implementing its program in Djibouti,
>> The Gambia,
>> Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal, and
>> Somalia.
>>
>> For more information about Tostan, please visit
>> www.tostan.org.
>>
>>
>>
>>
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> We thank you for joining our forum. The purpose of The Gambia Post Forum is
> to provide a place for national discourse, a place where we can exchange ideas
> and share common interests. The Gambia Post is the largest Gambian online
> community on the Web where a variety of issues are discussed. We maintain an
> Open Forum for ALL Gambians and Friends of The Gambia, accessible to people of
> all works of life, and ages. And so while we understand that it is human nature
> to lose one's temper occasionally, a consistent pattern of profanity, especially
> against the parents of others will not be tolerated. This may result in a
> suspension and if necessary an indefinite ban. Once again, welcome to the Gambia
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