In a Fulani village in south-east Senegal, Dioulde Balde nurses her baby daughter and proclaims that she will never allow her daughter to be mutilated as she was. As she plays with the child, she tells the story of her own genital mutilation and resultant health and sexual problems.
A grassroots movement has been spreading throughout the villages of Senegal since 1997. When the first village, Malicounda, publically announced it would abandon the practice, other villages followed suit until two hundred villages joined the movement. The protest against FGM started with an educational program set up by the United Nations in cooperation with a local NGO. News of the declarations spread through the media, inspiring women in other villages to demand education and to take similar decisions. Classes were held in a number of villages to teach women about health and about the rights of women and children.
The women felt empowered to speak to the male village elders and the elders respected the new ideas because they hold education in high regard. In January of 1999 the parliament of Senegal passed a law forbidding female genital mutilation. This is a success story which shows that education makes all the difference.

Award, North-South Media Festival, Geneva, 2000