A champion saving girls from FGM/C

Coumba Aw is a young champion leading change in her community. Hear how she works to inform people about the negative impacts of female genital mutilation or cutting (FGM/C) - from her perspective, and from a girl who she helped to avoid the cut of FGM/C.

Currently, I am a business management student with a focus on marketing and communication. I also do my volunteer work with the Girl Generation programme and the Adolescent Counseling Center. My ambition is to establish my own foundation in five years. I want to lead projects that promote gender equality and create a world where women and girls can exercise their rights freely, without discrimination or harassment.

How I came to be an end FGM/C champion

My grandmother, my mother, and other relatives, have experienced [excommunication or isolation from the community] due to their stance against FGM/C.

This has shaped my perspective in two ways. First, it has allowed me to live among survivors, understand their experiences, and recognize the long-term consequences of this practice. Second, as a young activist, it strengthens my commitment to this cause.

The Girl Generation approach is to empower young girls through dialogue, while ensuring their involvement in decision-making spaces to drive behavioural change. [This is the way to] a future where women and girls can fully exercise their rights and responsibilities without discrimination.

I want to tell you a success story.

In the Girl Generation, we tend to target a few neighbourhoods [for education and awareness activities]. In one of these neighbourhoods, we carried out intergenerational and community dialogues. During these activities, a young girl approached us and shared her concerns about FGM/C.

She told us that she comes from a very large family which practices FGM/C. [She knew that] in a few days, it was supposed to be her turn. With the help of our technicians and experts from the Adolescent Counseling Center and the Girl Generation programme, we were able to take action to help her.

Here's how we saved a girl from FGM/C

During our activities, we invite religious leaders, such as the imam, as well as health personnel, to address FGM/C. The imam explained that this practice does not originate from religious teachings but rather from different traditions.

Health professionals also emphasized the severe consequences that FGM/C can have in both the short and long term.

We also encourage young girls and parents to have open discussions, particularly with their mothers. In this particular case, the girl was able to talk to her mother, expressing her concerns about the practice. This conversation helped her mother become aware of the dangers of FGM/C and inspired her to encourage change.

These interventions helped the girl [to get the knowledge she needed to advocate for herself and] escape the procedure.

Today, this girl is an advocate for gender equality. [She is able to] envision a world where girls and women can exercise their rights freely. Her experience has profoundly changed her daily life, allowing her to understand the impact of social norms on her community.

How I got the information to help me

When I participated in the Girl Generation activities, I understood a lot of things. I come from a very traditional family that practices FGM/C, and every year, there are a number of young girls who participate in these rites of passage. At that point, I ha[d] not yet had the "opportunity" to participate in this. I say "opportunity" because in our country, it is [considered] an opportunity to be cut.

Through the activities I [understood] that there were many consequences [to FGM/C]. These consequences allowed me to doubt this practice a little. I wanted to talk to my mother about it, but I knew she wouldn't understand. So, during the next sessions, I did everything so that my mother could also attend these activities.

When she participated, I approached one of the champions, Coumba, with whom I discussed this subject at length.

From then on, I was an end FGM/C activist

Coumba was the one who really allowed me to discuss with my mother what we had seen, what they shared with us about the consequences, but especially about the religious argument. This also allowed my mother to doubt this practice, which is why she let me make my own choices, namely whether I would agree to be cut or not.

From then on, I [told myself that I would] be an activist for the abandonment of FGM/C. Today, I participate in activities at the Adolescent Counseling Center.