What We Do
Orchid Project is a UK-based NGO that is catalysing the global movement to end female genital cutting (FGC). FGC is a human rights violation that harms the lives of girls, women and their communities. We partner with pioneering grassroots organisations around the world, and share knowledge and best practice to accelerate change. We also advocate among governments and global leaders to ensure work to end FGC is prioritised.
Together, we can create a world free from FGC.
Partnering
Orchid Project partners with pioneering grassroots organisations that are supporting abandonment of female genital cutting (FGC) within communities around the world. Together with our partners in Kenya, Senegal and India, we recognise FGC as a social norm, which is held in place by an entire community. One of the most effective ways to support sustainable abandonment of FGC is through non-judgemental, human rights-led education, allowing communities to choose to end the practice.
Tostan
Tostan works throughout West Africa, in Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, The Gambia, Guinea and Guinea Bissau. Since 1991, Tostan has supported over 8,400 communities across West Africa to publicly declare that they’re abandoning FGC. This is made possible through Tostan’s holistic 30-month Community Empowerment Programme (CEP) delivered by local staff in local languages.
Orchid Project has partnered with Tostan since 2011 on its Social Mobilisation Programme in Senegal, which complements the CEP. This initiative supports teams of volunteers from villages that have already abandoned FGC, to spread the message and encourage other communities to join them.
S.A.F.E. Kenya
S.A.F.E. is working in Kenya to support community-led change to end FGC. Orchid Project has partnered with S.A.F.E. since 2013, supporting their “SAFE Maa” team, that works within the Maasai of Loita Hills, and the “SAFE Samburu” team, that works with the Samburu community in Westgate Conservancy.S.A.F.E.’s programmes are developed by local staff and members of the Maasai and Samburu communities. Their staff create non-judgemental spaces to enable discussion around FGC. S.A.F.E. spreads the word of FGC abandonment through traditional song and dance interwoven with human rights messaging.
The SAFE Maa team has developed a unique alternative rite of passage (ARP) in partnership with local traditional birth attendants (TBAs) who are also traditional circumcisers. After training from SAFE Maa, the TBAs wanted to create a non-harmful passage to womanhood that allows girls to remain uncut. SAFE Maa promotes the ARP during their workshops and performance tours. The SAFE Samburu team started their programme in 2015, replicating SAFE Maa’s successful approach which resulted in more girls going through the ARP. SAFE Samburu has also developed a network of village representatives who provide education at village level, to support their project.
Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW)
COVAW works throughout Kenya on three key strands of work: access to justice, movement-building, and advocacy and communications. Orchid Project is supporting COVAW to develop its project work, which focuses on shifting negative social and gender norms and attitudes that perpetuate FGC among the Maasai people in Narok.
COVAW takes a multifaceted approach to ending FGC. It works with community members, elders and traditional leaders, community activists, religious leaders, women leaders and county-level duty bearers to address harmful practices, including FGC, gender-based violence, and early and forced marriage.
Education Center for the Advancement of Women (ECAW)
ECAW is a grassroots organisation that has been working for the rights and empowerment of girls and women in Kuria, South West Kenya, since 2006. Alongside UK-based Feed The Minds and supported by Young Women’s Christian Association Kenya (YWCA), Orchid Project partners with ECAW to deliver a programme that fosters a movement for change in five rural villages in Kuria, supporting “champion girls” and paralegals who spread the message across the region of how FGC can end. ECAW raises awareness through community outreach, workshops, school clubs, dialogues and advocacy, to support community abandonment of the practice.
Sahiyo
Sahiyo is a transnational collective working in India, Pakistan, and with South Asian diaspora communities around the world. Their mission is to empower communities to end FGC, with a specific focus on the Dawoodi Bohra community. Based in the US and India, Sahiyo advocates for global recognition of the practice in Asia and the Middle East by lobbying governments, producing FGC research, and running media training workshops. Sahiyo engages locally with South Asian communities to find a collective solution to ending FGC and supports Dawoodi Bohra activists working to end FGC via discussion events.
Sharing
We share and amplify knowledge to accelerate the global movement to end female genital cutting (FGC). The work of our grassroots partners has shown that when communities are empowered to drive change, sustainable abandonment of FGC is possible. Orchid Project connects organisations and activists with the most up-to-date information, research and best practice to catalyse efforts to end the practice around the world; from global actors, to community-based organisations working at the grassroots level.
Knowledge Sharing Workshops
Orchid Project brings together local grassroots organisations through Knowledge Sharing Workshops. Since 2015, we’ve held workshops in Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Somaliland and Sierra Leone. These sessions allow participants to share experiences and solutions for ending FGC, increase their understanding of UNICEF’s Six Elements of Abandonment of FGC, and create supportive sustainable networks that continue to flourish after the workshops have finished.
This growing, highly participative programme helps delegates explore UNICEF’s Six Elements of Abandonment at a practical level and understand how they can be relevant to local contexts. We aim to share knowledge and understanding of a social norms-based approach to ending FGC, which we believe is one of the most effective ways of empowering communities to abandon the practice.
Orchid Project Fellows
Committed activists and representatives from organisations around the world are working within their communities to end FGC. We recognise the strong grassroots momentum that already exists, and support and strengthen this work through our Fellowship Programme. We identify opportunities for individuals to participate in seminars such as the GirlSPARKS Girl-Centred Programme Design workshops, and seminars held at the Tostan Training Centre in Thiès, Senegal, which provide training on their human rights-based approach to community-led development.
Amplifying how FGC can end
Orchid Project supports the growth of knowledge and expertise on FGC across civil society, activist communities, academia and government. Working with our partners, we amplify best practice, and share research and resources to equip those best placed to support communities to abandon FGC with the most up-to-date information. To date, we have carried out this work through webinars, events, and by amplifying news and stories through our digital channels.
Research
Knowledge of FGC is growing, however the true scale of the practice remains unknown. At least 45 countries around the world practice FGC, yet only 30 report national data. More work is needed around issues such as the growing medicalisation of the practice, how religion intersects with FGC, and FGC’s economic impacts.
Orchid Project highlights gaps in data and understanding, and contributes to research so we can better understand how FGC impacts girls, women and their communities and, most importantly, how it can end.
Advocacy
Orchid Project advocates for increased attention and resources to be invested in ending female genital cutting (FGC). We believe that FGC can only end with the help of leaders, activists and decision-makers at every level – from the grassroots, to regional, national and international actors.
193 countries have committed to the aim of achieving global abandonment of FGC by 2030, through the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, which include reducing FGC prevalence as a specific target under Goal 5.3.2. The recognition of FGC in this framework is bringing increased global attention to the practice as a human rights violation.
But there is still a great amount of work to be done if we are to bring an end to FGC within a generation. Our advocacy team has been instrumental in ensuring that the issue of FGC is represented on global platforms, and continues to make the case to governments and decision-makers for actions to be accelerated.
Together, we can create a world free from FGC.