About Equality Now
Women's Action Network
Equality Now Campaigns
Women's Action NetworkCampaign Against FGMCampaign Against
Sex Tourism/TraffickingProtocol on the Rightsof Women in AfricaUnited NationsThe LAW ProjectWomen,
Peace and SecurityJoin
the Women's Action NetworkSupport Equality NowMembership ProfileGuide to ActivismInternships/EmploymentPress Room
Events
Merchandise
Contact Equality Now
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
22
January 2007
Contact: Faiza Jama Mohamed, +254 20 271 9832 (office), +254 72 280 5539
(cell)
Equality Now Celebrates Six Years of Groundbreaking Grassroots Activism to End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Across Africa
Pan-African Groups See an End to FGM and Collaborate on Future Strategies at Annual FGM Fund Meeting
Nairobi, Kenya—Immediately following the World Social Forum, international human rights organization Equality Now will convene its fifth annual meeting of the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End FGM (FGM Fund), on January 26-28, 2007. Grassroots anti-FGM activists from 16 African countries will gather to showcase their remarkable achievements in ending the harmful traditional practice over the past six years.
The FGM Fund has grown exponentially since its creation in 2000 when it supported 5 grantees. Today the Fund supports the work of 23 groups in 16 African countries. Taina Bien-Aimé Executive Director of Equality Now explains, “Equality Now has always firmly believed that the most effective way to end a cultural practice like FGM is through direct community engagement. The FGM Fund was created when several small community based groups working to end FGM in different parts of Africa voiced a common need for increased resources and networking opportunities.”
An open forum will be held on 26th January when grantees will share general information with the public about their work, highlight innovations in the movement, and display materials at the Safari Park Hotel in Nairobi. The public forum will be followed by two days of closed deliberations where grantees will share and assess the impact of various strategies that have been used by the anti-FGM movement to date. Some of these include: alternative rites of passage, urging circumcisers to lay down the knife, spearheading anti-FGM laws, advocacy for implementation of the law, involvement of men and youth in the movement, raising awareness through innovative communication, using the media (news papers and community radio) as a tool for change, and working with religious and traditional leaders. Africa Regional Director Faiza Jama Mohamed elucidates, “In the past five years we have tried to set a central theme for each annual FGM Fund meeting that highlights one strategy in the anti-FGM movement. The Fund’s annual meeting is one of a few international spaces where we have systematically tried to share experiences and thoroughly evaluate the effectiveness of various strategies to end FGM. These annual meetings I believe have played a significant part in facilitating networking among activists and advancing anti-FGM advocacy efforts globally.”
This year the meeting will bring together activists from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania and the host country Kenya.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a harmful traditional practice that entails the cutting and/or removal of part or all of the external genitalia of girls and women. More than 130 million girls and women around the world are estimated to have undergone FGM. At least 2 million girls every year – 6,000 each day – are at risk of suffering FGM. FGM is a fundamental human rights violation.
|
Women and
girls around the world need your help.
|