By Mahnaz M. Harrison | Project Leader
Based on our efforts, and in collaboration with Kenyan authorities, we rescued 140 girls from late August through December, returning most safely to their homes by November. Some were part of the 1,000-girl cohort we have been working with over the last 19 months, and others came from the broader community, due to increased Covid-related demand for anti-FGM efforts. Before sending them home, and in the presence of authorities, we met with their parents, extracting assurances from them that they will not harm the girls. We continued (and still continue) monitoring the girls, even after they have left the rescue camp we helped establish as a safe haven. We still have six girls in our custody with the authorities’ permission, as their home environment is not safe for their return. We know that there are not enough shelters to save all the girls in danger of FGM. But we are maximizing our impact by practicing community coordination, working on attitudinal and behavioral changes, and integrating our efforts with enforcement of existing laws against FGM.
Our overall success in preventing FGM has come from our coordinated effort involving community leaders and authorities. In a brief co-authored and published by the International Center for Research on Women, we highlighted the successes of our efforts. Results from our program indicate that it is a promising way to identify girls at risk for FGM in time and mitigate the risk. We are able to demonstrate how merging technology with community-centered programming and consistent outreach and monitoring and evaluation contributes to the elimination of FGM. The consistent outreach has been systematized using our efficient VPack powered data collection program, coupled with one-on-one contact and monitoring of the girls at greatest risk of FGM. Timing was also a determinant of success. Sheltering girls during the season when FGM risk was peaking mitigated their risk; allowing girls who otherwise would have been cut to return to school in January unscathed.
The promising results from this FGM program indicate that community engaged FGM programs with VPack powered real-time monitoring, benefited young girls and should be replicated elsewhere. We have demonstrated the effectiveness of educating communities about the economic, health and emotional harms caused by FGM, and then complementing this with our meticulously recorded real-time data and just-in-time interventions.
That is why we need your support now to continue these activities, replicate them in other communities and scale up our efforts. These girls are desperate, and we are desperate to help them. But we cannot do it without further funding. It is your contribution that has made Last Mile4D’s work possible. We implore you at this critical time to continue your support for our intervention efforts on behalf of the girls, which gives them a shot at a brighter future.
Please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @LastMile_4D. Also, visit our website at www.lastmile4d.org to learn about our work and make contribution to us, directly during the year. We appreciate your support as some of you have opted to be a recurring donor, which brings matching dollars from GlobalGiving to us as well.
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