Distinctions and Recognition
In 1995, UNESCO chose Tostan as one of the most innovative education programs throughout the world and published a brochure on the Tostan experience. In 1999, Molly Melching was awarded the University of Illinois Alumni Humanitarian Prize and in 2002, the Sargent Shriver Distinguished Award for Humanitarian Service at the 40th Celebration of the Peace Corps. To date, many international films, radio programs, newspaper and magazine articles have been produced on Tostan, the Community Empowerment Program, and Molly herself. In 1997, Ms. Hillary Clinton, wife of then President Bill Clinton, visited a Tostan village and in 1998, both Hillary and The President paid a special visit to the Tostan program.
Molly continuously listens to feedback from Tostan participants and adapts Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program, including its methodology and approach, to meet the changing needs of the villagers, always preserving the dignity of the populations she serves through respectful consultation. Through years of experimentation, Tostan has confirmed the importance of human rights education in the process of improving health and other socioeconomic factors in standards of living. In October 2003, World Health Organization chose Tostan’s basic education approach as a “Best Practice Model” for community development and ending FGC, calling for further replication and dissemination of the model to other African nations. In 2005, Tostan won the Anna Lindh Prize for Human Rights, and in 2007 Tostan won two awards: the UNESCO King Sejong Prize for Literacy, and the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, the largest humanitarian prize in the world.
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