My FGM Story

Gambian journalist Halimatou Ceesay is a brave woman. She is making a film in The Gambia about Female Genital Mutilation which includes her story of being cut at the age of 9 years. She is talking to The President, Imams, Health Professionals and members of her own family about why FGM is a tradition in The Gambia and how it can be stopped. She needs help to raise money to get the film finished, translated into local languages,  and to show it to communities where up to 96% of young girls are cut before they are 15 years. I met Halimatou in 2015 and I am supporting her work to use film in the campaign to end FGM. She is making the film specifically for the Gambian audience. It addresses Gambia's cultural concerns, religious understanding and the fragile law which bans FGM but is difficult to uphold. Halimatou is eloquent, passionate and has a deep understanding and love of her country and culture. I believe she is in a unique position to convince  people to abandon FGM and help all those working to end FGM in a generation. The money raised by this campaign will go towards meeting the costs of translations, transport and producing the final edit to show in the communities. We will both be very grateful for your help. We have  put in a lot of work over the past few months and we are nearly there. This campaign really can change the lives of young girls.