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Today marks the International Day for Zero Tolerance of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), a day to raise awareness of women and girls right to live free from FGM.
Comic Relief started funding projects tackling FGM in 1996. Since then, we have funded 13 projects in Africa and have reached over 200,000 people.
Currently, Comic Relief is funding four projects addressing FGM in Africa, totalling more than £4.4 million. We support work which helps women and girls claim their right to live free from FGM through a variety of activities. These include supporting FGM survivors and girls at risk of FGM; establishing clubs in schools where girls can share their concerns and experiences; raising awareness within communities and households; working with prosecutors to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice; advocating for law changes to make FGM illegal and working with duty bearers to ensure that existing laws are applied, as well as building a movement of anti-FGM champions in Africa and the UK.
Equality Now
In 2012 Comic Relief started supporting Equality Now, an influential women’s rights organisation, working to end the practice of FGM in Mali, Liberia and Kenya. By working with affected girls and women, their communities and local and national authorities.
In Kenya, more than a quarter of women over 15 years old have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM). This is despite the practice being made illegal in 2001. In the Maasai community rates are much higher, with over three-quarters of women and girls having undergone the practice.
Equality Now’s Kenyan partner, Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative (TNI), is accelerating the end of the practice of FGM in Maasai communities by:
Comic Relief is also funding vital projects tackling FGM in the UK.
Working as part of the Maasai community to help bring about a change in attitudes and behaviours towards FGM
Advocating for, and practically supporting, the proper enforcement of national law’s prohibiting FGM. An Anti-FGM Network has been set up which brings together a range of actors to report cases of FGM, rescue girls and bring perpetrators to justice
Providing girls who have fled home to evade FGM or early marriage with refuge, care and support at Tasuru Girls Rescue Centre
Raising awareness through media outlets of the extremely harmful impact FGM can have on a girl’s life whilst campaigning for an end to the practice
Encouraging affected communities to substitute FGM with an alternative rites ceremony for girls, which doesn’t involve cutting
