15.7.2015. By Hannah Wettig

Thanks to Orchid Project I was able to present the campaign against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Iraqi Kurdistan and Asia at the side event of the conference on Financing for Development (FFD) in Addis Ababa. The panel on “Ending Female Genital Cutting” on Monday morning brought together people of quite different experiences. While Sister Fa reported how she supports education about FGM in her home country Senegal with money she collects herself, Domtila Chesang spoke about the village where she is from in Kenia. She decided to become an Anti-FGM activist when she saw the mutilation of her cousin and was terrified. Without support of her family she was still able to get an education at a near-by boarding school and is now happy to be supported by a broad coalition against FGM in Africa. This broad coalition was represented by Susan Bissell from Unicef who was proud to talk about the successes in Africa in the last couple years. David Hallam, director for international relations at the U.K. Department for International Development (DFID) said he wished they weren’t the biggest donor, because others should invest lots too, but he also mentioned Norway’s large investment.

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