Note from Face to Face Campaign Director Walter Coddington
	World Population Fund’s yearlong campaign against FGM
	“Female genital mutilation: a bleeding wound” by AIDOS
	F2F Spokesperson Waris Dirie honored by Childhelp, USA
	NAYLAH: “Heal a Woman, Heal a Nation”
	OEGF Seminar on FGM
	E&P reports FGM continues to ravage Africa and France
	Good news from Molly Melching in Senegal!
	NAYLAH: “Heal a Woman, Heal a Nation”

A good number of Face to Face Campaign Partners, Spokespersons and friends are focusing their advocacy work on the elimination of the practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) or female genital cutting (FGC), as some field workers prefer to call it – a more objective label. Our Partners have found that FGM is an issue that attracts a lot of media attention. In addition to building support for the elimination of the practice, they are using the issue to engage the public in the larger conversation about women’s sexual and reproductive health.

Here is what they are doing:

World Population Foundation (WPF) is conducting a yearlong publicity campaign, raising Dutch public awareness and funds.

AIDOS is in the second year of an anti-FGM campaign that Somali UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador Waris Dirie helped them launch.

And, speaking of Waris Dirie, she was recently honored by Childhelp USA for her efforts to end the practice of FGM.

A new organization has been formed in the United States called NAYLAH. NAYLAH was founded by former agents of Waris Dirie who are now dedicated to helping FGM survivors physically and emotionally.

Face to Face Campaign Partner OEFG has organized a May 8th seminar on FGM for political and health professionals in Austria.

French Face to Face Campaign Partner Equilibres & Population reports that each year there are 20,000 girls living in France who are at high risk of undergoing FGM.

Finally, Molly Melching, Director of Tostan, an American NGO based in Senegal, recently informed us that 108 villages – the entire rural community of Mampatim – made a public declaration to end FGC.

Let us know what you are doing to bring your public audience face to face with youth and women of the world denied basic health care and human rights. Please e-mail your stories to info@facetoface.org.

Dutch Face to Face Campaign Partner World Population Fund (WPF) campaigned throughout the year against female genital mutilation (FGM): a practice violating sexual and reproductive health and rights of women. WPF’s FGM campaign coincided with the implementation of their FGM project in Uganda.

Using lectures, information packets, media events, and the promotion of the book "Desert Flower" by Face to Face Campaign Spokesperson Waris Dirie, WPF has collected 20,000 signatures in support of efforts to end this form of violence against women.

As part of the campaign, WPF held a technical expert meeting with guest speakers, NGOs, Dutch policy makers and health professionals. The meeting's theme -- Past Lessons and Future Directions -- provided an opportunity to exchange experiences on the reduction of FGM from policy and practical levels and to analyze the pros and cons of different approaches in order to arrive at a checklist for future action. WPF will publish the results of the meeting.

WPF concluded the campaign with a press conference on April 26, 2001.The press conference featured Somali filmmaker Soraya Mire, whose film "Fire Eyes" detailed her own experiences with FGM. Margaret Kitono-Mbaziira, involved in the Ugandan project to eliminate FGM, and Naima Abdi Dhair, a Somalia anti-FGM activist in the Netherlands, also addressed the media. WPF called on the international community to outlaw FGM and to finance its reduction.

For more information on WPF, visit www.wpf.org or e-mail: office@wpf.org.

In September 1999, Face to Face Campaign Partner AIDOS launched a comprehensive awareness campaign on FGM designed to reach all levels of Italian society.

AIDOS has been working on the issue of FGM in various African countries since 1985. The organization launched the FGM campaign with a print advertisement and TV spot featuring F2F Campaign Spokesperson Waris Dirie. The ad ran in 22 daily newspapers and 15 magazines; the TV spot was shown several times on 12 TV channels and in 141 cinemas throughout Italy. The Italian media quickly picked up on the "hot" issue -- magazines, newspapers, journals, TV shows, and radio programs began regular coverage of the issue.

AIDOS' FGM advocacy work became integrated with the organization’s information campaign toward immigrants, financed by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. During the year 2000, AIDOS published: an annotated bibliography on FGM; a position paper on legislation of FGM; an information booklet in Somali and Italian; research on Somali and Nigerian immigrants in Italy; a guidebook for social workers and medical personnel; and an informative poster. Several meetings were held with communities of immigrants, personnel of NGOs working with the immigrants, and staff of the public health counseling centers.

The AIDOS FGM campaign has achieved great results. Most notably, a resolution was approved by Parliament, engaging the government to: a) conduct a survey on FGM in Italy; b) promote information and prevention campaigns within immigrant communities; c) guarantee psychological and legal assistance to girls and women who have been or could be mutilated; d) financially support the initiatives of NGOs that work for the eradication of FGM in Africa and in Europe. Also, an Interministerial Commission on FGM has been created with the purposes of creating a place of action for the prevention of FGM in Italy.
During an international conference organized by AIDOS with the European Parliamentarian Emma Bonino, on the 6th of March, 2001 in the Houses of Parliament, AIDOS asked the Italian Government to sign a trust fund with the United Nations Population Fund for financing projects against FGM in African countries. The Prime Minister, Hon. Giuliano Amato, who gave a speech at the conference, has accepted the proposal and the process has started. Meanwhile, the Ministry for Equal Opportunities has allocated 1.5 billion lire for financing the activities in Italy.

AIDOS continues its campaign against FGM throughout the year 2001. AIDOS will be holding training courses for health counseling personnel and working with the press to stimulate more coverage on FGM and women’s reproductive health

F2F has contributed US $30,000 to AIDOS’ campaign to eliminate FGM.

For more information, contact AIDOS by e-mail: aidos_italy@compuserve.com or Tel: +39 06 687 3214.

UNFPA Goodwill Ambassador and Face to Face Spokesperson for the Elimination of Female Genital Mutilation Waris Dirie, has been honored by Childhelp USA with its Guardian Angel Award for her efforts to end FGM. Childhelp USA is dedicated to the prevention and treatment of child abuse.

According to Childhelp USA, "It's hard to imagine the physical pain that Waris Dirie endured as a child and the emotional pain she has had to cope with as an adult. ... Waris has truly turned her 'pain' into a 'platform'. Her efforts are bringing hope to the victims of FGM."

Singer, actress and television personality Kathie Lee Gifford was also honored at the Childhelp USA event.

NAYLAH – meaning “successful” in Arabic – is a new, not-for-profit organization founded to support the gynecological and physiological health and well-being of women and girls who have experienced female genital cutting (FGC). NAYLAH Inc. is committed to providing healthcare to FGC survivors in the United States and around the world, regardless of their ability to pay.

In New York, NAYLAH will collaborate with recognized FGC expert Dr. Kamau Kokayi & Associates and The Clinic for Female Surgery at St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital.

Somali filmmaker Soraya Mire will serve as NAYLAH’s Spokesperson. Soraya will be educating the public about the harmful practice of FGC and reaching out to those survivors in need of medical/emotional support.

NAYLAH Inc. believes in “Heal a Woman, Heal a Nation” and is strongly committed to this endeavor.

To learn more about NAYLAH and services that will be offered, contact DeBorah Gittens, e-mail: healingdiva1@aol.com, or Akoshia Tolbert, Tel: 201.907.0244.

On May 8th, the Austrian Family Planning Association (OEGF) is holding a briefing for Austrian parliamentarians, government officials and NGOs on female genital mutilation (FGM). A distinguished panel of guests will share their experiences working to eradicate FGM, making the point that FGM is not a harmless tradition, but a severe harm to women.

Topics explored during the briefing will include: cultural reasons that condone FGM; preventing and eliminating FGM in African countries; legal aspects of FGM; and crucial points in the counseling setting. Founder of the African Women’s Organization in Vienna, Etenesh Hadis, will present an Austrian FGM study and advocate the need for an integrated approach to combating FGM.

Representatives from four Austrian political parties – Social Democrat, Freedom, Christian Democrat, and Green Party – will make statements during the FGM briefing.

OEGF’s aim of the briefing is to improve public knowledge of FGM, thereby creating more awareness to counteract its occurrence within Austria.

For more information about Face to Face Campaign partner OEGF, and their upcoming briefing on FGM, visit www.oegf.at or call +43 (1) 478 52 42.

Each year 20,000 women and girls living in France are at risk of having their genitals cut, reports Face to Face Campaign Partner Equilibres & Populations (E&P) in their montly newsletter. Of the women and girls at risk, 85% are immigrants arriving from Senegal, Mali and Mauritania.

France is one of the few Western nations who have passed legislation making FGM illegal. Since 1979, 20 women who have performed the traditional rite of passage have been arrested, sentenced and jailed, though E&P quickly points out that it is one thing to pass laws forbidding the harmful practice, but it is another thing to get a population to comply with the law voluntarily.

To educate a larger audience about the law prohibiting FGM and its harmful effects, E&P has initiated the following steps:

In France, E&P has teamed up with sociologist and FGM specialist Isabelle Gillette Faye to plan a colloquium on how to stop FGM in France and other nations. In March, E&P held a workshop to discuss the medical, ethical, sociological and judicial ramifications of FGM. And in June, E&P will call a grand colloquium in Paris inviting government officials, representatives from medical associations, and community representatives from France and African nations to collaborate to stop the unnecessary violence against women and girls.
In Mali, E&P is working with the government to implement a national action plan to eradicate FGM by 2007 and to provide medical and psychological support to those who have undergone genital cutting.
In France and Mali, E&P is pursuing a transnational information campaign where immigration authorities work together to prevent immigrants in France from returning to Mali where FGM can be more easily preformed.
Visit www.equipop.org or e-mail info@equipop.org to learn more about Equilibres & Populations and their work to stop FGM.

Molly Melching, Director of Tostan and a former Face to Face Testimonies participant (at The Hague) recently wrote us:

Hello! Just a note to let you know that 108 villages - the entire Rural Community of Mampatim [Senegal] - made a public declaration to end FGC [female genital cutting] and early marriages on March 25, 2001. This brings to 282 the total number of villages having declared an end to FGC in Senegal!

Congratulations, Tostan, Molly and the community of Mampatim!

Tostan is an American NGO based in Senegal, West Africa. Tostan helps villagers to take charge of their own development. A very successful program of Tostan focuses on ending female genital cutting. Established in 1991, Tostan is now extending its village empowerment program to other African countries.

Learn more about the extraordinary work of Tostan by visiting www.tostan.org or fax: +221 51 3427.

NAYLAH – meaning “successful” in Arabic – is a new, not-for-profit organization founded to support the gynecological and physiological health and well-being of women and girls who have experienced female genital cutting (FGC). NAYLAH Inc. is committed to providing healthcare to FGC survivors in the United States and around the world, regardless of their ability to pay.

In New York, NAYLAH will collaborate with recognized FGC expert Dr. Kamau Kokayi & Associates and The Clinic for Female Surgery at St. Lukes/Roosevelt Hospital.

Somali filmmaker Soraya Mire will serve as NAYLAH’s Spokesperson. Soraya will be educating the public about the harmful practice of FGC and reaching out to those survivors in need of medical/emotional support.

NAYLAH Inc. believes in “Heal a Woman, Heal a Nation” and is strongly committed to this endeavor.

To learn more about NAYLAH and services that will be offered, contact DeBorah Gittens, e-mail: healingdiva1@aol.com, or Akoshia Tolbert, Tel: 201.907.0244.