Female Genital Mutilation

Female Genital Mutilation is a culture still preserved in most developing countries, including Somali where the rate is relatively high. Even though many girls bleed to death or die of infection and those who survive are traumatized through their lives and can suffer adverse health effects during marriage and pregnancy, it is still difficult to disseminate information on the danger of this practice. It is for this reason that HIRDA has been waging an awareness campaign against FGM since 2000.

Through HIRDA Projects, communities are now more aware of the problems associated with FGM . Due to this behavioral change in communities, HIRDA selected 10 most prominent women circumcisers and offered a training as a birth attandant (Training traditional Birth Attendant (TBA) provided that they stop circumcising girls either secretly or publicly.
Because these women have a social position in the community and received also benefits when they circumcise girls it is not a simple matter of telling them to stop the practise unless an alternative is provided. It was based on this need that HIRDA through our capacity building and women empowerment programmes trained ex/circumcisers to become trational Birth Attendants (TBA), literacy courses and handicraft so they can acquire alternative jobs in their communities.

HIRDA,s projects also provide both physical and emotional treatment for victims of FGM. We have succeeded in using victims as information agents with access to their fellow women. HIRDA women empowerment projects prioritize the strengthening of mothers ‘right to refuse the mutilation of their daughters’ genitals.