Tostan awarded $1.5 million Hilton Humanitarian Prize

Molly Melching's Peace Corps story is unusual both for its beginning and its end.  Unusual at the beginning because she was already living in Senegal and fluent in Wolof when she applied to be a volunteer.  And unusual in its ending in that she never really returned home after completing her two years of service.  Instead, Molly found her life's work in Senegal, developing the incredibly effective non-governmental organization Tostan. 

Tostan ("breakthrough" in Wolof) empowers communities throughout Africa to transform their lives through an innovative non-formal educational program, teaching in local languages and with African oral traditions.  In 2002 Molly received NPCA's Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service for her work and the organization's achievements.  You can read all about this amazing woman in a profile that appeared in NPCA's  WorldView magazine.

This morning Tostan received yet another honor.  The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation announced that Tostan has been selected to receive the 2007 Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize of $1.5 million. The Conrad N. Hilton Foundation presents the annual award, the world’s largest humanitarian prize, to an organization that significantly alleviates human suffering.

Tostan first focused primarily on women, but later added men and adolescents.  The introduction of human rights and democracy teaching modules in 1996 created unexpected and unprecedented results:  eliminating discrimination against women and children and motivating more than 2,600 villages, with more than two million people, to voluntarily and publicly abandon harmful traditions such as female genital cutting (FGC) and child and forced marriage.  Further, Tostan is the catalyst behind an historic grassroots initiative announced this week by Senegalese women to be the first African country to end FGC within the next five years.

You can read more about Tostan's work, the Hilton Prize, and the Hilton Foundation in a press release on the Hilton Foundation website.

Congratulations Tostan!!