Everyone at the conference declared 'Zero Tolerance' to FGC

06/02/2010: To celebrate International Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Cutting (FGC) day, children in Mali acted out a sketch to help abandon excision, a harmful traditional practice, and to raise awareness about the dangers it poses to girls.

As part of Mali's National Programme to Fight Excision (PNLE) conference, children aged 15-18 from Mali’s Centre for Listening and Assistance to Distressed Girls produced a sketch focussed on the damages caused by excision on Malian society and their refusal to accept the practice. 

In the sketch, they portrayed the case of Nabintou, a clever young girl with a bright future ahead of her. But Nabintou’s parents took her to be excised. Nabintou died as a result of the operation.

Time to abandon FGC

The girls’ sketch made it clear to the public that thousands of girls die every year due to excision and that it was time to abandon it completely.

Hawa Sidibé, a 14 year old girl who took part in the sketch, said: "By playing the drama during the ceremony, we were able to publicly address the greatest religious preacher of Mali. He cursed women that didn't excise their daughters. Now that he has agreed to sit down and listen calmly, I would say that he's changing his mind."

In Mali, Female Genital Cutting has long been a traditional practice carried out on young girls. Not only is it internationally recognised as a violation of children’s rights, but it also causes serious bodily harm, having negative consequences on girls’ health: it causes haemorrhages which often lead to death, disturbs girls’ development and can also lead to the breakdown of marriage.

Campaigning for behaviour change

But since 2004, as part of the PNLE, Plan Mali has been running a programme to fight against excision in 140 villages spanning 5 of the 8 regions in Mali. Through Plan and partners' ongoing campaigns for behaviour change, advocacy sessions at the national and community level, social mobilisation and media campaigns with the national press and local radios, 27 villages have completely abandoned FGC.

The PNLE conference also brought together programme partners, a government minister, religious leaders, village chiefs, the media and a huge crowd of children and young people to declare ‘Zero Tolerance to FGC’.

Find out more about Plan's work in Mali