By Imelda Durand | Translation & Editing Coordinator
To help girls become leaders in their communities, it is fundamental to consider the family, community and cultural systems in which they are embedded. In order to promote change it is important to build on the roles and values that underpin communities. Elders are key pillars of African societies and can influence the development of girls and younger women, in particular.
In years past, Grandmother Project – Change through Culture (GMP) documented the positive effects of grandmother involvement in maternal and child health programs in Senegal, Mali, and Sierra Leone that all demonstrated grandmothers’ ability to learn and to change.
Likewise, in southern Senegal, grandmothers helped shift deep-seated cultural norms around girls’ education, child marriage, teen pregnancy and female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) as part of its Girls’ Holistic Development (GHD) Program. Grandmothers are guardians of tradition and are vital to drive sustained change in these norms.
GMP’s strategy to promote community-wide support for GHD targets three generations of community actors (elders, adults and adolescents), who have the power to facilitate change. This intergenerational approach and the empowerment of grandmothers’ has spurred dialogue to build a consensus for positive change.
GMPs’ key activities to help girls become leaders in their communities include: grandmothers as story-tellers in schools for passing on positive cultural values to children, leadership trainings sessions both for girls and grandmothers, and the creation of community alliances of grandmothers, girls and mothers to strengthen intergenerational relationships for the collective promotion of GHD.
Since January 2024, GMP has implemented a series of intergenerational forums with three generations of women and under the tree informal education sessions in 12 different communities to empower both young girls and grandmothers with leadership skills and enable them to take together powerful collective actions and change social norms.
Now, we are using our influence to improve the well-being of children, especially girls. We spend time with girls and discuss many things including their studies, sexuality and putting off marriage’. Grandmother Binta
‘Thanks to the grandmothers, we have not yet been married off. They were able to convince our parents to wait’. Khady, Adolescent Girl
‘FGM has been abandoned here thanks to the grandmothers. When the grandmothers decided to stop the practice, no men could oppose their decision’ Village Leader
By Imelda Durand | Translation & Editing Coordinator
By Imelda Durand | Translation & Editing Coordinator
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