sissao is one of hundreds of so-called social mobilizers for tostan, traveling to communities to urgeact to all these changes? >> in the beginning it was hard because the men didn't know what goes on when you practice this female tradition. they just accepted that that was what was to be done. fred: we visited sounkarou diambang, village chief, now in retirement, who recalls being approached by women in the community. he called together religious leaders. senegal is predominantly muslim. >> they said, let us look in the koran and see where it's written that women must go through this. and they found nowhere where it said that they must be cut. fred: that interpretation removed a significant hurdle to abandoning fgc, and the support of many men. indeed, many social mobilizers and tostan staff are male, many driven by memories of a loved one's suffering. melching took time to stop by the family of one late campaigner, boubou sall, who years earlier had lost an eight-year-old daughter. >> he thought when she got a fever two weeks after she got the fgc operation that it was malaria, and s

molly melching, founder, tostan: the new rule is you do not, you do not cut your daughter.ride to the declaration, i asked molly melching what's bringing about change here. the key difference, she says, it's not a directive to eradicate, but a decision to abandon cutting. molly melching: we need to abandon ourselves. it's not because someone tells us to. fred: melching is globally recognized as founder of a group called tostan, or breakthrough, best known for helping communities across several african countries abandon fgc. it's not exactly what the danville, illinois, native set out to do when she moved to senegal as a student, then peace corps volunteer, a long time ago. molly melching: i would not have dreamed that i would be here 50 years, although this is a magical country. it's beautiful. fred: she began in education, working to develop children's reading materials in local languages. in senegal, books, if available at all, were in french, the former colonial language that few can read or even speak. with a small grant, she began in the village of sam ndiaye, where sh