Eradicate Female Genital Mutilation in Kenya

The specter of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is frightening enough for young girls who have their lives ahead of them. But when you add COVID-19 to the mix, the outlook looks bleaker. The closure of schools due to the virus has devastated the lives of the young girls of Kuria, Kenya. Because schools can no longer provide sanctuary to girls, the closures have led to a sharp rise in the incidence of FGM and early marriage. Taken together, these phenomena close off any prospects for a girl’s emotional and economic future. School closings have meant that women circumcisers can move more easily, earlier, and faster among the villages that practice FGM. Therefore, the cutting “season” that ordinarily starts mid-November is upon us much earlier. We know this because our proprietary VPackand database technologieskeep us informed about which girls are at risk for FGM. We are now in the process of sending our workers door-to-door checking on the girls who reported being frightened about the prospects of being cut. In response, we quickly set up a camp and began rescuing girls.

Based on our efforts, and in collaboration with authorities, we have already rescued 104 girls from the 1,000 girls that have been part of our cohort over the last 15 months. But we are stretched beyond our resources. This is partially due to our sheltering girls, ages 6 to 18, brought to us by the authorities, who were not part of our initial cohort or budgets. But since they were in imminent danger of being cut, we could not turn them away. As soon as the news got out that we set up a rescue camp, many of the parents, whom we have engaged and educated about the harms of FGM, brought their daughters to the camp and asked us to keep them safe, fearful that tribal leaders were going to forcibly cut them. Also, in some cases girls themselves, informed about our programs, ran away to the rescue camp to escape being cut. We are currently providing secure shelter, food, clothing, emotional and educational support to all of these girls, keeping them safe from FGM and early marriage. In a perverse sort of way, this is proof of our concept. Our education and information sharing with the communities about the harms of FGM has mobilized parents, the girls, and the authorities toward the goal of ending this brutal and archaic practice.

We continue informing the communities about the harm of FGM through radio ads, accelerated conversations, and the demonstration effects of our rescues. That is why we need your support now to fund these activities until the schools reopen. These girls are desperate, and we are desperate to help them. But we cannot do it without further funding. It is your contribution that has made Last Mile4D’s work possible. We implore you at this critical time to continue your support for our efforts to rescue the girls and give them a brighter future.

Please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @LastMile_4D. Also, visit our website at www.lastmile4d.org to learn about our work and make contribution to us, directly during the year. We appreciate your support as some of you have opted to be a sustaining donor, which brings matching dollars from GlobalGiving to us as well.

Links:

• about FGM
• Partners and authorities in support of VPack