For many communities that practice FGM, the long December holidays also serve to usher in the cutting season, as schools break and  many girls return home to their families. As part of activities to mark 16 Days of Activism, UNFPA partnered with the Anti-FGM Board to hold a 3-day capacity building workshop targeting more than 70 young people leading efforts to end FGM across Kenya’s 22 hotspot counties. The workshop aimed to equip the youth with skills and information to launch interventions that will adequately respond to FGM risks within their communities, to ensure that no girl undergoes FGM during the  long December holiday season, and beyond.

Addressing participants at the workshop, Anti-FGM Board CEO Ms. Bernadette Loloju urged the youth to be particularly vigilant as the future of thousands of girls is at stake if they do not return to school at the end of the holidays. “This is the longest school break that the country has had since the Covid-19 outbreak. We therefore need to ensure that community engagement is enhanced and that efforts are coordinated across stakeholders for a more effective response,” she said.

The capacity building workshop is part of UNFPA’s efforts to strengthen movement building of allies working towards ending FGM, as the country implements Phase IV of the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme on the Elimination of FGM. Under Phase IV, the Joint Programme prioritizes movement building by expanding purposeful partnerships and fostering cooperation with youth-led organizations and feminist and youth movements, as well as by enhancing their capacities to influence social change and amplify their voices on issues related to FGM through innovative and safe platforms and spaces.

Participants at the workshop held in Naivasha, Kenya, were drawn from the Youth Anti FGM Network Kenya (YANK) and the UNFPA Youth Advisory Panel. The young people were lauded for their active participation in raising awareness on FGM across digital spaces. Through content creation on social media, the youth have been able to harness the power of the internet to drive activism and reach a wider audience with information on ending FGM.