Our key countries

BENIN

Awareness raising with success: (I)NTACT’s key country Benin

Pres. Christa Müller visiting Benin                   Women's group in her garden in Northern Benin

In Benin, (I)NTACT’s support has resulted in the so far greatest achievement: According to its own claims in April 2005, the country has overcome female genital mutilation. Five Beninese organisations, who have received funds from (I)NTACT since 1996, decisively contributed to this success.

(I)NTACT spent a total of 500,000 Euros in Benin to inform the population of the severe health consequences resulting from female circumcision and to fight against this custom which violates human rights.

The partners of (I)NTACT still stay on site to safeguard the good outcomes and to make it last.

One way of protecting the sustainability of these achievements in Benin is to take intensive action in the neighbouring countries Togo and Burkina Faso in order to prevent that Beninese girls are taken across the land borders and are mutilated in the neighbouring countries.

BURKINA FASO

High circumcision rate: Need of sensitization is immense

The Handing over of knives in Barsalogho                   

Burkina Faso belongs to (I)NTACT’s key countries. The scope of activities in this country was extended in the course of a Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) project.

According to the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the rate of circumcised women and girls has sunk continuously since the introduction of the legal ban in 1996. However, according to DHS 2003, the rate is still about 80 per cent. Among the daughters of these women about 40 per cent are affected by circumcision or at risk to undergo it. Moreover, evidence suggests that increasingly younger girls or babies are mutilated to avoid prosecution.

Furthermore, female genital mutilation is a transboundary problem. The achievements in Northern Benin are endangered by the fact that circumcision is still common in the east of Burkina Faso. For these reasons (I)NTACT wants to continue being intensively involved in Burkina Faso during the coming years.

Since 1993 (I)NTACT has supported awareness campaigns in Burkina Faso. Up to now, six local organisations in six of the 45 provinces of the country have been assisted with their fight against female genital mutilation. 

A 3-year (2007-10) project, co-financed by BMZ and the German Development Service (DED), with the 5 partner organisations Association Bangr Nooma, Soutong Nooma, Yénimahan, Khoolesmen and Théâtre Sanyon is currently running. The project operates in the provinces Seno, Sanmatenga, Kourwéogo, Mouhoun, Kénédougou and Houet.

The activities of the partner organisations in Burkina Faso range from theatre plays, training of social workers, health staff and teachers about the supervision of small loans, occupational retraining of circumcisers as well as efforts to convince local authorities (for example religious leaders or traditional village headmen) to comprehensive sensitization of village people. In doing so, we pay special attention to families with girls who might be potential victims of FGM.

SENEGAL

New project in Casamance as from late 2009

Pres. Christa Müller during a project visit in Senegal

Senegal ranks among (I)NTACT’s key countries for quite some time now. Since 2002 we work together with the organisation OFAD in the south of the country, the Casamance. Numerous villages have already been reached with awareness campaigns. Official celebrations of the turning away from genital mutilation underline the success.

Now, the end of circumcision in the whole of Casamance is aimed at. First, all villages in the region of Kolda, in the eastern part of Casamance, are integrated in a project as from the middle of 2009. In Kolda, up to 94 % of the girls and women are mutilated. Among the prevailing ethnic groups, the Peulh, Mandingo and Soninke, the female genital mutilation is a deeply rooted tradition.

On account of the legal ban in Senegal, an increasing "circumcision tourism" across the borders to Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau has been reported. These countries are a sanctuary for still practising circumcisers and demanding families from Senegal. To avoid this, circumcision will be counteracted intensively in these border areas. 

In addition to intensive awareness measures for all affected actors - families, grandmothers, circumcisers, religious leaders and village headmen - our project “Women with Fistulas” makes the option of a surgery available.

Fistulas, openings between vagina, bladder or bowel, mainly occur in the course of childbirth and are a serious consequence of the mutilation. They cause incessant and uncontrollable defecation or emiction. Because of the involved malodour, women with fistulas are often socially isolated, disowned and not regarded as capable members of the community. In the majority of cases, young women from poor rural backgrounds are concerned.

Fistulas are generally treatable. However, there is a lack of information and access to medical care, because of the missing infrastructure as well as missing funds to pay for a surgery.

TOGO

Our aim: No more female genital mutilation as from 2011!

Former circumcisers

In Togo, the circumcision rate is approximately 12% nationwide. However, among certain ethnic groups in the north and centre of Togo the custom is very common and the numbers range from 85 to 98%. In contrast, the prevalence in the south is very low.

Being a neighbouring country of Benin, Togo already came in (I)NTACT’s field of vision some years ago. From 2004 to 2007, self-financed projects were carried out together with the local organisations Odjougbo, ODIAE and Tama'de. The project strategy, which had been tried and tested in Benin, was now applied successfully. In many parts of the regions Plateaux and Centrale the knives were laid down.

Since the end of 2008, awareness campaigns are also realized within the framework of a three-year BMZ-promoted project in all Togolese villages and towns all over the country, in which the circumcision of girls and women is still common. As from the year 2011, the right of women and girls to physical integrity in the range of reproductive health shall be enforced in Togo.

The change in cultural attitudes and the abandonment of the genital mutilation is realized by the awareness campaigns of seven Togolese partner organisations. In cooperation with the authorities they inform the families living in the villages and install village committees with which they compile sustainable strategies. Due to the monitoring of all circumcisers living in the villages and their involvement in the awareness raising, the mutilations should completely disappear.

Our project partners are the organisations Tama'de, ODIAE, Odjougbo, GRADSE, Kpaal n Paag, G.A.2D and O.R.E.P.S.A.