Launched in 2005, our Participatory Education Program has provided 247 women with 15-18 months of basic math, literacy, and essential maternal, child, and family health skills training in classes facilitated by trained community members.  Participants, who previously had little or no access to formal education, teach health skills learned in class to five other women weekly who, in turn, apply those skills within their families.  To date, this system of “organized diffusion” has reached thousands of community members in Yirimadjo.

In 2009, Project Muso established a partnership with the internationally acclaimed community development organization Tostan to jointly pilot their community education and action methodology in 28 new Non-Formal Education Classes and 14 new Community Management Committees in Yirimadjo.  Together, we enrolled over 1,200 new education participants in a 3-year intensive training program, and trained over 200 community activists.  The classes, launched in January 2010, include women, men, and adolescents and follow Tostan’s participatory education curriculum, which is based on human rights and social empowerment. 

In the first section of the program, the Kobi, participants cover topics such as democracy, human rights and responsibilities, problem solving, hygiene, and health.  The second portion of the program, the Aawde, will focus on pre-literacy, literacy, writing, math for management, and project management.  Tostan’s teaching methods draw on interactive activities such as theater, storytelling, artwork, and small group work and aim to provide participants with the skills necessary to become self-sufficient and to enact change in their community.