FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE GLOBAL LEADERS UNITE IN KENYA FOR HISTORIC CONVENING TO HELP END FGM/C AND CHILD MARRIAGE NAIROBI / NAIVASHA, Kenya (Aug. 30- Sept. 4, 2026) — Around 150 global leaders, including survivors of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage from 36 countries, will convene in Naivasha, Kenya, for the three-day Justice for […]
Women in Liberation & Leadership (WILL) is a survivor-led grassroots movement in The Gambia, driven by women who have endured Female Genital Mutilation and are now leading the fight to end it. Rooted in lived experience, WILL empowers survivors to reclaim agency over their bodies and choices, while mobilising communities to protect girls from FGM, child marriage, and gender-based violence. By building alliances with local institutions, civil society, and international partners, WILL ensures that change is not imposed from outside but grows from within, anchored in survivor leadership and community action to secure justice and dignity for future generations.
The Wallace Global Fund is a private grantmaking foundation based in Washington, D.C. Founded by Henry A. Wallace, a Vice President to Franklin Roosevelt a progressive leader, the Fund champions people-powered movement building and works to advance democracy, climate action, and racial, economic and gender justice. The Fund has been committed to ending female genital mutilation (FGM) since its inception. The Fund works to break the silence around FGM by directing its resources to survivor-led movements, frontline activists, and national, regional, and global advocacy organizations. The Fund plans to cease operations in December 2026. However, the Fund is developing a new FGM Frontline Funding and Advocacy Initiative. that will extend its longstanding work on FGM beyond the Fund’s closure and provide a catalytic funding mechanism for other donors. The Initiative will provide consistent, flexible funding and support to: (1) frontline organizations working on ending FGM, and (2) a movement support hub, which will direct resources to regional and global FGM intermediaries and organizations, support media and communications outreach and training, and launch a survivor leadership fellowship component. The Initiative will be officially launched at the FGM & Child Marriage Justice for Girls Convening & Festival.
There Is No Limit Foundation is a 501(c)(3) international nonprofit organization. It’s a women-led organization committed to advancing dignity, security, and justice through advocacy, maternal health, and economic empowerment. Founded by two Guinean-American sisters, Mariama Camara and Aissata M.B. Camara. Based in New York City for the past 24 years, the foundation was built on the belief that women are the cornerstone of thriving communities. TINLF works to break cycles of poverty and violence by centering women and girls in everything we do.
The Vavengers is a women and survivor-led movement working to end Female Genital Mutilation and intersecting Violence Against Women and Girls. The campaigning work focuses on improving health, legal and education systems through survivor-led advocacy work, convenings create safe spaces where businesses, civil society, members of communities, government representatives and funders can get together to work towards the shared goal of ending Gender-Based Violence and our connect work builds up community members by connecting them with critical services to make meaningful change in their life while removing vulnerabilities that leave new generations face. The Vavengers builds evidence through reputable policy frameworks and reports, runs survivor-led frontline workshops and works with a local-to-global approach to end FGM and intersecting violence such as forced marriage in our lifetime. The Vavengers also advocates for these forms of violence to be recognised as forms of modern slavery and sexual violence against women and girls, shifting the narrative to survivor-led in media, policy, education and community settings. The Vavengers understand and strongly believe, when women and girls rise, we all thrive.
The U.S. End FGM/C Network is a collaborative group of around 200 members, including FGM/C survivors, civil society organizations, foundations, activists, policymakers, researchers, healthcare providers, and others committed to promoting the abandonment of FGM/C in the U.S. and globally.
The Girl Generation - Support to the Africa Led Movement to End FGM Programme (TGG-ALM) is implemented by a consortium led by Options Consultancy Services and includes Amref Health Africa, ActionAid, Orchid Project, and Africa Coordination Centre for Abandonment of FGM. It works closely with the Population Council’s Data Hub, the programme’s data and measurement arm. The program continues to support and build the capacity of the existing Africa-led Movement to end FGM at multiple levels and at scale. The programme does not work in isolation but partners with the rest of the end FGM movement globally, including UN agencies.
The Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women is a non-profit women’s NGO with a consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and an observer status with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, ARROW has been working since 1993 to champion women and young people’s sexual and reproductive rights. ARROW occupies a strategic niche in the Asia Pacific region and is a Global South-based, feminist, and women-led organisation that focuses on the equality, gender, health, and human rights of women.
Sahiyo is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering Asian and other communities to end female genital cutting (FGM/C) through dialogue, education, and collaboration rooted in community involvement. Founded in 2015, Sahiyo centers survivor voices, particularly within South Asian diasporas, and is guided by a commitment to bodily autonomy, consent, and the recognition of FGM/C as a human rights violation. Sahiyo works at the intersection of survivor-centered programming, community education, and systems change, centering the voices and lived experiences of women and girls from communities where FGM/C occurs. Sahiyo’s primary areas of work include survivor-centered healing spaces, community storytelling, intergenerational dialogue, professional education, and cross-sector capacity-building.
The Global Platform for Action to End FGM/C is a consortium of civil society organizations, champions, survivors, and grassroots representatives united in a singular mission: to support the abandonment and prevention of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). The core group includes Amref Health Africa, African Women Rights Advocates (AWRA), Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW), End FGM/C Africa Network, End FGM Canada Network, End FGM European Network, Equality Now, Orchid Project, Sahiyo, The U.S. End FGM/C Network, There Is No Limit Foundation, Tostan, The Girl Generation, The Asia Network to end FGM/C, and The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices.
Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of civil society organisations dedicated to ending child marriage and supporting girls to realise their full rights and potential. Founded in 2011, the partnership brings together more than 1,400 member organisations across over 100 countries, including grassroots groups, national coalitions, international NGOs, research institutions, and advocacy networks. As a collective, Girls Not Brides connects members, fosters collaboration, and strengthens shared efforts to address child marriage in all its forms, recognising it as both a human rights violation and a barrier to sustainable development. The partnership works at local, national, regional, and global levels to drive change through evidence-based advocacy, policy influence, and knowledge generation. By convening diverse actors and centring locally led solutions, Girls Not Brides plays a pivotal role in advancing coordinated, inclusive, and sustainable action to end child marriage and promote gender equality worldwide. Girls Not Brides Kenya is a national partnership of over 135 civil society organisations working at both national and grassroots levels to influence policy and budget decisions that help end child marriage. Established in 2017 as the End Child Marriage Network Kenya, it officially became Girls Not Brides Kenya in 2020. The national partnership aims to amplify the voices of girls across Kenya to realise a society where all girls enjoy their rights and reach their full potential.The partnership operates across 14 regions, coordinated by regional leads, and covers Kenya’s 47 counties.
Orchid Project is an international NGO, with offices in Nairobi and London, working at the forefront of the global movement to create a world free from FGM/C. Orchid Project was founded in 2011, and our approach remains centred on working with grassroots and geographically wider partners to provide communities with the tools they need to make long-lasting steps towards abandoning cutting for themselves. Our approach is community-centric, but aimed at achieving larger-scale change by catalysing a movement of organisations, youth and survivor activists, politicians, ambassadors and leaders at all levels, in the areas where we are most experienced. We do this by: i) undertaking research, generating evidence and curating knowledge to better equip those working to end FGM/C; ii) supporing and catalysing regional networks; iii) influencing global and regional policies, actions and funding towards ending FGM/C.
Equality Now is a worldwide human rights organisation dedicated to securing the legal and systemic change needed to end discrimination against all women and girls. Since its inception in 1992, it has played a role in reforming 130 discriminatory laws globally, positively impacting the lives of hundreds of millions of women and girls, their communities and nations, both now and for generations to come. Working with partners at national, regional and global levels, Equality Now draws on deep legal expertise and a diverse range of social, political and cultural perspectives to continue to lead the way in steering, shaping and driving the change needed to achieve enduring gender equality, to the benefit of all.
The End FGM Canada Network is a non-partisan group of survivors, individuals and organizations working to end female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and support survivors both in Canada and abroad. The Network unites members and stakeholders across Canada to share knowledge and foster collaboration within the field of FGM/ C, with a focus on creating platforms for engagement and offering trauma-informed culturally sensitive tools to enable frontline professionals to address FGM/C in Canadian communities. We also work with our international partners to advance the discourse and human rights battle to end FGM/C worldwide.
End Female Genital Cutting Singapore envisions a world where female genital cutting (FGC), in Singapore and globally, is obsolete. We work to shift paradigms within Muslim communities by promoting medically accurate understandings of harm and recognising the diversity of religious interpretations on FGC. Alongside this, we engage and advocate with healthcare professionals, religious leaders, and policymakers to encourage clear and accountable public positions on the practice. We also educate the wider public, fostering solidarity and meaningful allyship from non-Muslim communities through accessible education, social media engagement, and concrete avenues for action.
Coalition on Violence Against Women (COVAW) is a national non-profit women’s rights organization that was established in 1995 to respond to the silence of the Kenyan society in addressing Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG). COVAW pursues an integrated approach focusing on: 1. Advocacy: Supporting evidence-based advocacy towards existence and enforcement of gender progressive norms, policies, laws and institutions. 2. Service delivery: Piloting and implementing innovative and scalable high impact responses to SGBV and other violations and increased access to SRHR solutions. 3. Capacity development: Offering technical support to women, girls, and key actors involved in addressing VAWG and promoting women’s access to rights, services, opportunities and resources. 4. Movement building: Supporting mobilization, organising, empowering of and solidarity with key actors to increase their consciousness and activism on rights and freedoms of women and girls.
African Women’s Rights Advocates (AWRA) is a Pan-African, survivor-centred movement advancing the rights, dignity, and leadership of African women and girls across the continent and the diaspora. As a holistic and intersectional collective of frontline activists, grassroots leaders, and changemakers, AWRA works across borders and generations to dismantle systemic injustices and end violence against women and girls in all its forms. Rooted in a “for us, by us” ethos, the movement centres African women’s voices in global gender justice spaces while challenging colonial power dynamics in funding, policy, and narratives.
