USAID award no. 698-0541-G-00-7016-00 to Womankind Kenya to provide support for a program in female genital mutilation awareness campaign in Garissa District

WOKIKE will launch a 6-month campaign of 9 workshops, mainly for women groups and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs), first in the central division of the Garissa District and eventually throughout the District. The workshops will use posters, booklets, and flip charts, as well as songs, dances, poems, to highlight the harmful effects of female circumcision and bring the subject into open discussion. Since a main reason for the continuance of the practice is the belief that it is mandated by Islamic law, a specific objective will be to raise women"s awareness that the two most noxious forms of female circumcision -- the infibulation and excision methods -- are in fact haram (forbidden) by Islam, and to expound on the milder, sunna (traditional) method. Workshop implementors will be drawn from the health sector, the Islamic clergy, and institutions of higher learning.