Gambia: Local Advocacy Group Leads Progress in Eliminating Female Genital Mutilation


The advocacy group, GAMCOTRAP (the Gambia Committee on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children) provides trainings and workshops on ending female genital mutilation (FGM) in Gambia through the UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women. The project reports that sixty-four percent of the 300 women that have taken part in the workshops to date have pledged that their daughters will not undergo FGM. 
 Additionally, the project educates and trains community leaders on how to talk openly about the negative and harmful effects of FGM on women and girls. GAMCOTRAP was also involved in the successful enactment in December 2015 of a total ban on FGM in Gambia.

 

Compiled from: UN Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women, Ending Female Genital Mutilation in the GambiaUN Women (August 11, 2016)