Nearly 5,300 villages in Senegal have pledged to end female genital mutilation (FGM) to date, according to Tostan, the non-governmental organization leading the grass-roots advocacy campaign supported by the UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Programme on Female Genital Mutilation. Despite some areas of resistance, Senegal has vowed to fully eradicate FGM by 2015.
In a recent ceremony, large crowds turned out in the village of Pata, in southeastern Senegal, to show their support for the formal announcement that 69 additional villages had vowed to end FGM. Many mothers present, most of whom had undergone FGM themselves, expressed their conviction that they would prevent their young daughters from being subjected to the same trauma. Some acknowledged the difficulty in confronting social norms and the wishes of elders in their communities but were confident that education about the dangers of FGM would be effective in ending the practice.
Compiled from: More Communities in Senegal Disavow Female Genital Mutilation and Cutting, UNFPA (31 January 2012).