Blog

Guest Blog from Bakary Seedy Dampha, Founder and National Coordinator, Kids Come First, The Gambia. The Girl Generation organized the first ever Pan African youth summit held from 25-26 April 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya. The summit brought together 170 young people from 17 countries including diaspora in the UK.

Guest Blog by Abdullahi Mohamed Abdinur, Health and Hunger Aid. Health and Hunger Aid (HhAid) is a non-governmental organization, free from political, clans, religion and ethnic divisions, works with thousands of youth in urban and rural areas throughout Northern Kenya. HhAid strives to create a future where communities are able to facilitate their own development. HhAid works in program areas of Sexual and Reproductive and right, Food security, Water and Sanitation as well as HIV/AIDS awareness/mitigation.

Guest Blog by Sam Cook, Feed the Minds. Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP) approaches – that use an alternative ritual to FGM to symbolise a girl’s transition to womanhood – sound great on the surface. But are they an effective strategy for abandonment of FGM that can be applied in other communities? And who else needs to be involved to ensure long term change?

Guest Blog by the Society for the Improvement of Rural People (SIRP). In Igbo land, FGM is usually carried out to coincide with the child’s naming ceremony, which is a festive event with gifts and refreshments. In Igbo culture, the naming ceremony comes up almost immediately after the birth of the child. It is normally done on the 7^th to the 12^th day after the birth of the child. When a child is born in Igbo land, he or she is welcomed into the world with joyous songs.

Guest Blog by the Pastoralist Child Foundation. Since 2013, Pastoralist Child Foundation’s (PCF) Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP) have been instrumental in lowering the rate of FGM in Samburu, Kenya. We have managed to decrease the former rate of 96% in East Samburu Ward down to 80%. Our replacement for “the cut” is through education and celebrations for groups of 60 girls during their school holidays in April, August, and December. 

Guest Blog by Millicent Ondigo for Amref Health Africa. It began one and a half years ago with the birth of the ‘Yes I Do Alliance-Kenya Programme’. The Yes I Do Alliance had one purpose of contributing to the reduction of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/C), child marriage and teenage pregnancies among the Maa community residing in Kajiado West Sub County of Kajiado in Kenya.

Guest Blog by Miranda Dobson, Orchid Project. 

SAFE Maa is a Kenyan-based NGO and UK charity working with the Maasai in the Loita Hills, South West Kenya, on ending female genital cutting (FGC), environmental sustainability, and addressing HIV and AIDS. They have been delivering programmes since 2008, and are dedicated to changing the attitudes surrounding FGC in Loita as a way to help create community-led change. Orchid Project partnered with SAFE Maa in 2013 to support an awareness-raising performance tour on FGC and have continued to work closely with them ever since.

Guest post by Barrister Ugwu Somtochukwu Nnamdi, Society for the Improvement of Rural People (SIRP). Did you know that currently in Nigeria, 20 million women and girls have been mutilated and yet there has been no conviction? Although, there are so many reasons for this, but in this article we dwelt on the two major reasons for this in Nigeria.

Guest Blog by Kadi Doumbia. I have been trying to find out about a reason why girls have to undergo female genital mutilation, but unfortunately, I have not yet found any valid reasons to why we, girls must undergo this practice; perhaps there is no reason at all other than myths and ignorance.

Guest Blog by Ayomikun Emmanuel Olugbode. The need for us to act as a nation against this practice cannot be overemphasized when practices or beliefs that can hamper the education of our girls are being done. One of the purposes of education is to enable the girl child to realize her rights and participate like her counterparts in the society. This practice of FGM/C in Nigeria has hindered many girls from achieving this purpose.