The National Coordinator for Tostan in The Gambia, Mr. Bakary Tamba, has recently returned from Italy.  He was there for a ten-day Sensitization program concerning Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

In an exclusive interview with The Point at Tostan’s headquarters in Kololi, Mr. Tamba said he started working with Tostan in Cassamance.  There he worked with a regional coordinator where they issued declarations in December 2003 on FGM to 118 villages after which he said the villages accepted to stop practicing FGM.  “Since then people’s relatives residing in Italy heard about our work through the Internet and asked us about it.  Some even came home to find that their parents had stopped practicing FGM and wanted to know how we had convinced them to stop this barbaric tradition.  I told them about our efforts in Cassamance and showed them the film, which they in turn took to Italy.  They showed it to their organization called “Jamoral” or the association of Jolas and other Africans in Italy led by Lamin Jarju who invited me to the conference.”

Mr. Tamba then disclosed that the association is planning to get other African Countries like Nigeria, Egypt, Niger, Mali, and more involved in their sensitization program within the next six months.  “Among other things we discussed the SMS program that Tostan is planning which would introduce new mobile phones so that our people can spread our ideas using many different languages.  We also touched on the rights of children and health.”

The conference was organized by Maria Pupo; the director of Anastasia.