Donor Direct Action FGM Fund Grantees

On January 30, 2020, 12 year-old Nada Hassan Abdel-Maqsoud bled to death at a private clinic in Manfalout, Egypt after being subjected to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Though Egypt first banned FGM in 2008 the practice continued to be performed in and outside medical facilities. It took 17-year old Mayar Mohamed Mousa’s death following FGM in 2016 for the government to amend the Egyptian penal code making FGM a felony and increasing penalties. And still the practice continues.
 
Despite the groundbreaking advancement we have witnessed in understanding FGM over the past 30-years and the passage of laws and policies against it in many countries, millions of girls continue to be subjected to FGM on all continents of the world today. It is clear that a scourge like this requires much more than the law. It needs the indomitable strength and grit of anti-FGM activists on the front lines to challenge their communities and ensure that girls are kept safe – every day.  
 
Donor Direct Action’s Efua Dorkenoo Fund to End Female Genital Mutilation (FGM Fund) supports 5 extraordinary grassroots groups who have worked tirelessly to dislodge this centuries-old harmful practice within their communities. It is extremely difficult community organizing and advocacy work that these groups have undertaken for several decades. Most of the countries where our FGM Fund partners work have notably high prevalence rates – Burkina Faso (76%), The Gambia (76%), Kenya (27%), Sierra Leone (88%), and Somalia (98%).  
 
Like all international grassroots women’s rights work, front line anti-FGM activism does not receive even a fraction of the funding it needs and deserves. But you can change that. Today, February 6th is International Zero Tolerance Day for FGM. You can be part of the life-saving work of our partners in The FGM Fund. We are hoping to raise a modest $50,000.00 in February 2020 for our FGM Fund partners – $10,000 for each group. Believe it or not, even that small amount can make a world of a difference for our partners and the girls they seek to protect.
 
Please help us share the word with your friends, colleagues and community and help us build a supportive funding network for grassroots activism to end FGM. For girls like Nada, it is a matter of life and death.

Yours sincerely,

Jessica Neuwirth
Director