Fund for Grassroots Activism to End FGM

Across Africa vibrant grassroots groups have long been on the frontlines of the fight to end FGM. Despite their cutting-edge and strategic work, these groups are often underfunded, isolated and face the overwhelming challenge of having to intervene in urgent and sometimes life-threatening situations with little access to resources. In order to increase global support and visibility for the work of grassroots anti-FGM groups Equality Now established the Fund for Grassroots Activism to End FGM (FGM Fund) in 2000. The FGM Fund not only supports groups with small grants, but it also provides networking opportunities for activists to share best practices in the movement to end FGM. To date, 36 groups in 19 countries have received grants under the FGM Fund.

The FGM Fund holds regular meetings of partners to facilitate exchange of strategies and discussion of challenges facing the anti-FGM movement as a whole. Some thematic issues addressed in these meetings include: the role of men in ending FGM, the involvement of circumcisers who have abandoned the practice in advocacy to end FGM, and the role of law in eradicating the practice. In 2003, FGM Fund partners traveled to the state of Georgia following reports of the first known FGM case in the U.S. Grantees met with local organizers in African immigrant communities in Georgia to strategize collectively for outreach to end the underground practice in the U.S. Subsequent to Equality Now’s FGM Fund meeting, Georgia passed a law prohibiting FGM. In 2009, FGM Fund partners traveled to Mali to advocate for the passage of an anti-FGM law in Mali.

Current partners of the FGM Fund include:

Burkina Faso
Association Voix de Femmes

Cameroon
Inter-African Committee (IAC)

Côte d’Ivoire
Organisation Nationale pour L’Enfant, la Femme et la Famille (ONEF)

Djibouti
Union Nationale des Femmes de Djibouti (UNFD)

Egypt
The Centre for Egyptian Women’ Legal Assistance (CEWLA)
SAWA Association for Developing Society

Eritrea
National Union of Eritrean Youth and Students (NUEYS)

Ethiopia
Oromo Grassroots Development Initiative HUNDEE

The Gambia
The Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP)

Ghana
Ghanaian Association for Women’s Welfare (GAWW)

Guinea
Cellule de Coordination sur les Pratiques Traditionnelles Affectant la Santé des Femmes et des Enfants (CPTAFE)

Liberia
Women Solidarity Inc. (WOSI)

Kenya
Marakwet Girls & Women Project (MG&WP)
Tasaru Ntomonok Initiative (TNI)
WomanKind Kenya (WOKIKE)
Women’s Rights Institute for Peace (WRIP)

Mali
Association Malienne Pour le Suivi et l’Orientation des Pratiques Traditionnelles (AMSOPT)
Promotion des Femmes de Sabalibougou (PROFESAB)

Niger
Le Comité Nigérien sur les Pratiques Traditionnelles ayant effet sur la santé des Femmes et des Enfants (CONIPRAT)

Sierra Leone
Amazonian Initiative Movement (AIM)

Somalia
Galkayo Education Centre for Peace and Development (GECPD)

Somaliland
Women Inter Action Group (WIAG)

Sudan
Sudan Development Association (SDA)

Tanzania
Network Against Female Genital Mutilation (NAFGEM)
Legal and Human Rights Centre (LHRC)
Women Wake up (WOWAP)

For copies of FGM Fund meeting reports please send an email to: equalitynownairobi@equalitynow.org