Violence against women and girls

Violence against women and girls (VAWG), including domestic violence, sexual harassment, rape and FGM affects on average one in three women and girls worldwide. Learn what ActionAid is doing to combat VAWG.

Sexual and reproductive health and rights means all women and girls have the right to make informed choices around sexuality, pregnancy, family planning, safe abortion, and have access to accurate information around sexual health, including sexually transmitted infections (STIs), HIV and AIDS.

Emily, 42, is a local ActionAid worker who lives in West Pokot, Kenya. Committed to changing the lives of women and girls in the region, she works with a network of more than 100 women from surrounding villages to help stamp out female genital mutilation (FGM). Since ActionAid started working there, Emily says fewer girls are facing the cut and many more are staying in school. But, as she explains here, there is still much to do to end the practice for good.

In the UK 1st September means back to school. No doubt some parents are frantically making sure their children are fully equipped for the new school year, while many girls and boys are wishing the summer holidays would never end. But in Kenya, when children return to the classroom, some faces will almost certainly be missing - the faces of girls. Girls who are absent not by choice. Not because they don't want to study. But because during the holidays they have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).

28 Too Many is a values based charity working to end female genital mutilation (FGM). Our primary focus is on research and enabling local initiatives to end FGM in the 28 African countries where it is practised and across the diaspora.

Recently, we published a report on The Medicalisation of FGM. Despite much progress towards ending FGM in recent years, the number of cases recorded worldwide annually is still staggeringly high. Equally worrying though, is the increase in the number of health professionals who are carrying out FGM procedures: the 'medicalisation of FGM'.

In the fight to end FGM, Maria’s story shows that change is possible. The 66-year-old cut more than 100 girls in a job that spanned four decades. Yet she knew little about the long term health risks of FGM, which stands for female genital mutilation. That was until she attended a talk by ActionAid. What she discovered horrified her enough to put the blade down forever. It also unlocked a painful secret from her past. Here is her story.