2007年VOA标准英语-Humanitarian Prize Goes to Senegalese Group Fig

By Phuong Tran
Dakar
13 August 2007

A Senegalese non-profit group, which has fought against female genital mutilation for more than 15 years, has won a humanitarian¹ prize of $1.5 million dollars. For VOA, Phuong Tran has more from Dakar.

The non-profit group Tostan, which means "breakthrough" in a local Senegalese language, has worked with village leaders since 1991 to get them to abandon the long-held belief that cutting a young girl's sexual organ keeps her pure for marriage.

The cutting is normally performed by traditional practitioners² using crude scissors, knives or even razor blades, often without anesthetics, leaving scars and long-term medical problems.

Molly Melching (File Photo)

Tostan's founder³, Molly Melching, says when Tostan started challenging what was considered a religious rule, she doubted whether people would actually stop doing it.

"Many people have said and I told myself, I am not sure I can do this. As soon as I said this is too overwhelming, too huge a thing to even work on, the women in the field would say to me, you have to support us because if you do not support us, who will," said Melching.

Aida Mandiang, 40, is a Senegalese woman from the Mandeng tribe that has long believed in cutting girls' organs. She had her own cut she she was 12 years old. But when her daughter turned the same age, Mandiang decided⁴ not to follow tradition.

Mandiang said she did not want her daughter to go through the pain, and she had learned about the health dangers.

Mandiang has been working with Tostan since 2000 to educate other families.

Melching says villagers like Mandiang have helped spread the message to more than 300 communities in Senegal, Guinea and Burkina Faso through village dances, songs, theater, and personal testimonies⁵. Melching's staff of 370 is almost all African.

The founder says thousands of villagers have publicly promised to abandon the practice.

But Melching says there are still those who doubt Tostan can change deeply-held traditions.

"People will look to one or two people who may still continue [female genital cutting] and say their [Tostan's] work is worth nothing," she added.

Now, their work is worth $1.5 million more after the U.S.-based group Conrad N. Hilton Foundation chose Tostan from 250 humanitarian groups for the prize.

Tostan's current budget is $4 million. Melching says Tostan will continue to fight female genital cutting with the money, as well as expand its work into more countries, fight early child marriage, improve literacy and promote small business development.

Previous winners of the humanitarian prize include Doctors Without Borders, SOS Children's Villages and International Rescue Committee. The award ceremony will be held in New York next month.

1 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

2 practitioners   

n.习艺者，实习者( practitioner的名词复数 )；从业者（尤指医师）

参考例句：

• one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction 最了不起的科幻小说家之一
• The technique is experimental, but the list of its practitioners is growing. 这种技术是试验性的，但是采用它的人正在增加。 来自辞典例句

3 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 testimonies   

（法庭上证人的）证词( testimony的名词复数 )； 证明，证据

参考例句：

• Davie poured forth his eloquence upon the controversies and testimonies of the day. 戴维向他滔滔不绝地谈那些当时有争论的问题和上帝的箴言。
• Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have kept thy testimonies. 22求你除掉我所受的羞辱和藐视，因我遵守你的法度。