Anti-FGM local frontliners to donors: 'Please trust us with your resources'

Oct 10, 2023

"We are employed by passion. We are the solution. We know what works best," says FGM survivor and champion Sadia Hussein.

Sadia Hussein of FrontlineEndingFGM addressing delegates on the opening day of the second International Conference on FGM in Dar es Salaam on Oct 9, 2023. (Credit: Joseph Kizza)

Joseph Kizza
Senior Producer - Digital Content @New Vision

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đź“Ť DAR ES SALAAM

Sadia Hussein was only 10 when she underwent genital mutilation. Like for millions of others who have been cut, it was a very painful experience, but one that many years later emboldened her to work to end the harmful procedure.

None of Hussein's children, including her eldest daughter, 15, is cut. 

And the mother of three from Tana River county in Kenya's southeast wants it that way — not just for her own, but for all other girls and women out there who are at risk.

Hussein is a member of FrontlineEndingFGM, a group of determined feminists working to end violence in their communities.

They believe that tackling, for instance, female genital mutilation (FGM), from the grassroots is a more effective approach. But only if they get more than the 2% they say they get from donor funding.

"Please trust us with your resources," Hussein appealed to donors on the opening day of the second International Conference on Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on Monday.

Sadia Hussein says grassroots frontliners need to be supported more

Sadia Hussein says grassroots frontliners need to be supported more


'It is enough!'

Speaking for local activists, the FGM survivor and champion said the grassroots frontliners who "need less resources to fight against FGM" should be supported.

"We are employed by passion. We are the solution. We know what works best."

Hussein, who is also the executive director of Brighter Society Initiative (BSI) Kenya, was one of the main speakers of a jam-packed morning plenary inside the Julius Nyerere International Convention Centre.

Tanzania's community development and gender minister Dr Dorothy Onesphoro Gwajima officially opened the conference, with a call to all countries to join hands in accelerating the changes needed to end FGM.

"We must say: 'It is enough! It is enough!"

Tanzania's community development and gender minister Dr Dorothy Onesphoro Gwajima opened the conference on Monday

Tanzania's community development and gender minister Dr Dorothy Onesphoro Gwajima opened the conference on Monday


Gwajima, too, believes that efforts should start from the grassroots and that the young people involved should get the much-need resources.

"Let us amplify their voices so that everyone becomes an agent of change," rallied the minister.

Risky and still common in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, FGM, which takes on a brutal form of removing, partially or totally, the clitoris or labia minora, mains a big concern.

The misguided belief is that doing so reduces libido and preserves women's chastity.

Over 200 million girls and women alive today have undergone the practice, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Because FGM is usually conducted in unsanitary conditions and without anaesthesia, the painful procedure can lead to serious physical, psychological and sexual complications.

And, in the most tragic cases, it can lead to death.


On the opening day of the three-day conference, as many as 550 delegates from different parts of Africa and the world were in attendance, with others following along virtually.

African ministers, legislators and rights activists and funding agencies — including Spotlight Initiative, UNFPA, UNICEF, European Union — are represented in the large group gathered here in Tanzania's port city.

The conference has been convened by the African Union Commission, which is the African Union's secretariat.

Breakout sessions on day one included discussions on legal and policy action, financing the elimination of harmful practices as well as changing and transforming social norms.

Teams also talked about working with men and boys in ending FGM.

Discussions continue on Tuesday, with a ministerial panel on cross-border FGM among the sessions.

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