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Britain has ended two big programs for the safety of girls from female genital mutilation (fgm, Independent Despite successfully running for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council on a pledge to combat this practice, I have learned.
Events have been canceled midway deep cuts till British foreign aid 40 percent will be cut from the budget by 2029 to shift funds to the defense sector. security of projects rights of women and girls have been particularly badly affected.
absolutely some details what will be cut So far, information has been released only in small amounts.
Kadiata, 22, from senegal Was volunteering and working as a youth leader for a program funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) senegalKenya, Somaliland and Ethiopia, when he realized it was about to end.
“If the program did not exist, fgm Will continue. Therefore, there will be more victims, more danger,” Kadiyata said.
Although she had experienced it herself when she was a young child, she knew little about the practice until she joined this project – only that it was common practice in her family. “Even my aunt is doing this,” she said.
Now, she says she’s better prepared for “future consequences as a woman” — what might happen when she gets married and gives birth to children.
However, more importantly, she has heard from people in her village who have given up the practice after speaking to her and other girls during community meetings, talking about their experiences and showing them evidence of the consequences of FGM.
The charity Amref Health Africa, which runs an anti-FGM project, is also involved with Cutter. Many people are reluctant to give up the practice because it provides them with a healthy income and status within their communities, saying that they do not see any negative consequences of their work. The charity uses nurses in the community to teach them that many of the most serious outcomes occur decades later, often after a woman has given birth to a child.
As a result, Cutter and others in the community do not connect the death to the surgery that occurred decades ago, explained program manager Ernest Clement Mendy. Nurses will tell them, “‘I get results from your practice every day'”.
In senegalFGM is particularly concentrated in some border communities. In somaliaOn the other hand, about 98 percent of girls experience some form of cutting or mutilation.
A separate project to combat FGM and gender-based violence somaliaRun by Save the Children, has also been removed.
Shukriya Dini, executive director of the Somali Women’s Study Center (SWSC), which works with Save the Children, can attest to the changes the program has seen.
Usually a taboo subject that most men think doesn’t concern them, “Now through raising awareness men have become involved and as a father they are saying ‘I don’t want my daughters to have blood. I have to play a part in this’,” he said.
Save the Children has documented cases of parents abandoning the practice after participating.
Mother Farah Gass, 52 years old somaliaThere is such a parent. He told the charity: “I saw how much pain my wife had to endure during childbirth because of FGM. I couldn’t let my daughters go through the same pain.”
“I knew that by speaking out I would face opposition, but I also knew that silence would mean more girls suffering in the future.”
But progress can easily slide back. “Somalia is a fragile state. It is a country that is recovering [from] More than four decades of turmoil,” Dini explained.
“State building is slow and state institutions are emerging and are still not strong enough to protect women,” she said, leaving aid to fill the gaps, including providing essential services such as food and medicine to survivors of sexual violence. Women’s rights organizations are particularly dependent on donor funding.
Through donors like the UK, Dini said, she has been able to advocate for policy changes and anti-FGM laws. Now, however, without resources, her organization and others cannot demand accountability or push for changes in the law to protect women. “So the picture looks pretty grim”.
A Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) spokesperson said: “FCDO remains steadfast in advocating for the rights of women and girls around the world, including working with local partners to tackle this problem.” fgmForced marriage and other coercive practices.
‘We established FCDO [overseas development aid] Allocations for 2025/26 and for future years in the coming months will be set out in our annual report in July, including for our programs to protect the rights of women and girls.
This article was produced as part of The Independent Rethinking global aid Project