Success stories

This 65-year-old worker has been a village health worker (VHW) in The Gambia for four years, has received training from the ministry of health and participates in health care-based programs in his community.

According to him, he had never received training on FGM before his first training with WGK in February 2020. He believes that the practice of FGM is reducing as he has not heard of any cases over the past three years. Even though the community is a Mandinka community (the largest practicing ethnic group), the practice has virtually disappeared, “perhaps they are aware of the health complications the practice causes,” he said.

He is in favor of the law prohibiting FGM, he said: "I support the law prohibiting the practice of FGM because I think it has complications, so it should be stopped". He believes men have a role to play in decision-making.

He comments that he fully supports the carrying out of FGM, since it is an old tradition and he believes that it is part of religion for him. "Yes, the prophet advised that both men and women undergo circumcision." This was what he said when asked if FGM was mandatory by Islam. She believes that it is a good practice and that it does not harm women's health. He said: “They said it's not good and it also hurts a woman, but they didn't tell us how it hurts a woman. And we have been with our women and other women, but we have never seen any problems related to the practice of FGM." He believes that, if a woman has not gone through FGM, it is difficult to satisfy her sexually, so performing the practice will reduce promiscuity among women.

"This training is good. It has really changed my life because before I had a different concept of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Before, when I heard someone say that FGM was not good, I told them that I didn't know what they talked about because it is our culture and we found our people doing it. I used to confront those people and tell them that the practice was good. However, later when Wassu Gambia Kafo came to train us, I knew that the concept I had about FGM does not coincide with what is happening. What I have learned here has changed my life because I was a victim, as I told here in class. I was circumcised when I was nine years old, at that time I was in second grade, but when they took me away I was not They informed me. In the morning they told me "we are going to give you bananas, today you will have a lot of bananas." So I was happy, I told my friends that we were going to eat a lot of bananas. Then we went and I found myself in a critical situation where I suffered a lot. It was horrible for me because the hemorrhage that they have talked about here... that day I bled, I bled a lot. They tried to help me control the bleeding, but it was really a bad day for me. This training has changed me a lot, I have learned a lot from these complications. Since I am a community nurse and I am close to the community, what I plan to do now is, when I return, I will try to sensitize my people, especially my traditional midwives and health workers in the villages. I will sensitize them and the influential people in the villages. I will talk to them and explain the negative impact of FGM. I am very proud of Wassu Gambia Kafo, because you are helping the nation. You are not helping the individual health professional, but the nation, because by training health personnel you are training the entire nation. We, health professionals, are the ones who work with the community, so if you train us we can go to the communities, express ourselves and return this information. I am happy because you are changing our lives. What we thought before and what we are seeing now is different. So definitely, Wassu Gambia Kafo, thank you very much."

"Today, if circumcision was on someone's mind, that person has changed and the person who was thinking of circumcising his daughter has stopped, and why? Because of the information that Wassu Kafo Gambia gave to the people of our country that has given us delighted, since it is for our future and the future of our leaders. I value her, as do many other people like me who are here. And if God accompanies me back to Jokadou Dassilami, as I am the wife of Alkhalo's little brother (village chief), I will make sure to disseminate this information in Dassilami.

And from now on if someone wants to circumcise their daughter, they will have to look for a 'circumciser' somewhere else, because I, my hands, will never do that job again".