Blog posts from our network of grassroots activists and research academics
Guest Blog by Kemi Omololu-Olunloyo, Journalist/Founder and News Director. For the last 16 days I have witnessed an overwhelming scene on social media of something I thought I was dealing with alone. Female Genital Mutilation. FGM was performed on me at age 5 and I will never forget the event. It is still etched in my mind and when reporter Ludovica Iaccino mentioned she was doing a story about it at the International Business Times.
Guest Blog from Kirthi Jayakumar, Founder of The Red Elephant Foundation. The consequences of FGM on the health, both physical and psychological, are tremendous. There is a need for health care, concentrated assistance to repatriate the dangerous impact, and also, in many communities, a desperate need to help the women stand on their own feet if they choose to escape the dangerous treatment.
Guest Blog from Bakary Seedy Damph (Buba). Bakary Seedy Damph (Buba) founded and runs Kids Come First Foundation, a community based advocacy group that offers support and empowers children irrespective of their backgrounds. The foundation addresses issues such as Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and Child Marriage and provides affected children and their families with psychological, financial and emotional support based on a fair assessment of their needs.
Guest Blog by Ayako Fujihara. This paper employs a cross-country comparison of the role of NGOs in advocating an end to FGM, in order to explore what can be done in countries that have legislated against the practice but have seen limited success in enforcement. As of 2015, 25 countries in Africa have legislations or decrees against FGM. Practices in Togo and Benin will be discussed as both countries have seen a significant decline in the prevalence rate of FGM over the past 2 decades.
Guest blog by Dr Chris Ugwu, Executive Director, Society for the Improvement of Rural people (SIRP) informed guests at the Obollo-Afor celebration that the formal launch of the FGM Country profile was organized in collaboration with an UK NGO ‘28 Too Many’.
Today is International Literacy Day and as a Communications Manager, literacy is something that obviously comes high up on my agenda. But literacy really is something that should be on everyone´s agenda because, astonishingly, over 750 million people in the world are illiterate, two-thirds of them women.
Guest blog by Andrew Mendy. The fight to end FGM in the Gambia and other practicing nations will almost be impossible without the active involvement and participation of men. Hence, it is important that all stakeholders in this fight get the men on board sooner rather than later. This is crucial as the men in their roles as fathers, husbands, community and religious leaders may play a leading and pivotal role in the abandonment of FGM.
Recently, I asked an Egyptian medical doctor whether he had ever encountered FGM. He had indeed encountered it. He told me that he was once at a hospital and was asked whether he would circumcise two children. He agreed, assuming that both children were boys, but then it turned out that one was a boy and the other a girl.
Research blog by Louise Ferdjani. A research blog on the the role of the global media and multi-lateral partnership campaigns and movements in tackling FGM in Africa. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) remains a taboo subject in many places where it is practised and the nature of campaigning on the issue has evolved in response to this over the years.