Charity wants pilot programme combatting FGM extended nationwide

A leading charity has called on the Government to extend a project in Cork nationwide to protect 1,632 girls from“cruel and unnecessary” female genital mutilation (FGM).

ActionAid Ireland CEO Siobhán McGee said: “We know that this work is needed outside of Cork, the figures clearly show that, but we need a real commitment to preventing FGM from Government in order to meet the needs out there.”

Development charity ActionAid has been running the AFTER (Against FGM Through Empowerment and Rejection) education programme with residents of direct provision centres in Cork since 2016.

Eleven women based at the Kinsale Road Direct Provision centre graduated from the programme in Cork in November.

The course, which aims to empower communities to reject the practice, is the only programme of its kind in the country and it will be extended to men and teenage girls living in direct provision in Cork in the coming weeks.

It is estimated that more than 1,600 girls may be at risk of FGM in Ireland.

Last week, a married couple became the first people in Ireland convicted and sentenced over the practice after their then one-year-old daughter suffered FGM at their Dublin home.

“In light of last week’s ruling where a couple were sentenced to imprisonment for facilitating the practice of FGM on their young daughter age two, we have a renewed focus and intensity about our work combatting FGM in Ireland," Ms McGee said.

"We have a track record of working with communities to stop FGM – in Kenya, we saw a 27% reduction in the incidences of FGM after working consistently with the Kongelai community. We are using our expertise here in Cork to do the same.”

We know that there could be as many as 1,632 girls living in Ireland that are at high risk of being cut.

"We can prevent this and protect further victims from this cruel and unnecessary practice,” Ms McGee said.

“At the AFTER graduation event in Cork in November, we called on the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney to support the roll-out of our programme across the country.”

FGM is defined as the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or any practice that deliberately changes or injures the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.

The World Health Organization estimates that 100m-140m women worldwide have undergone FGM. Tomorrow has been named International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM.