[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 135 (Wednesday, September 12, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S11501]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  (At the request of Mr. Reid, the following statement was ordered to 
be printed in the Record.)

                  HILTON HUMANITARIAN PRIZE TO TOSTAN

 Mrs. CLINTON. Madam President, I would like to commend the 
Senegalese-based nonprofit organization Tostan, which today will 
receive the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize. Tostan, founded by 
former Peace Corps volunteer Molly Melching, promotes basic education 
and helps to empower women and men to change their communities.
  As one resident of The Gambia noted, ``With this program, people will 
make change from within for themselves without anyone else's help.''
  The work of Tostan has transformed the lives of residents in Senegal 
and other African countries. While I was First Lady, I had the 
opportunity to visit Dakar to meet with Molly and the women and men who 
were working to address female genital cutting, FGC, in their 
communities.
  I learned in these encounters that an extraordinary power is 
unleashed when people reach out to their neighbors and find common 
ground. When men and women begin to lift themselves up, they lift up 
their families and their communities as well.
  Tostan is the catalyst for change in communities across Africa, and 
it produces results: More than 160,000 individuals have attended human 
rights and democracy classes run by Tostan; more than 1,000 community 
management committees--80 percent of which are headed by women--have 
benefited from Tostan's guidance; and more than 2 million people in 
over 2,000 villages have made a public commitment to ending practices 
like FGC or child marriage.
  Indeed, earlier this year, women in Senegal announced that they will 
be seeking to make that country the first in Africa to eliminate FGC 
entirely within the next 5 years--a pledge that would not have been 
possible without the work of Tostan over these many years.
  Tostan will be using the award money from the Hilton prize to further 
its activities in countries across Africa to end female genital 
cutting, improve literacy, and promote small business and community 
development. I look forward to learning how these additional resources 
are used in the expansion of their programs.
  The work of Tostan is a shining example of how democracy works; how 
women's voices and men's voices, can be heard, and can lead to change 
in their communities. I would like to again congratulate Tostan for 
receiving the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize.

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