Category: Blog

Today, 6th February, the world over pauses to commemorate International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and affirm one absolute principle: FGM is a harmful cultural practice unacceptable everywhere.

Yet, as global attention turns to ending the practice, apivotal battle is unfolding in The Gambia, where the Supreme Court is hearing arguments that could reverse the country’s 2015 ban on FGM and strip women and girls of their legal protection from FGM.The urgency of this moment is underscored by recent reports of the death of two babies after undergoing FGM in Banjul and Basse after undergoing FGM. These deaths reveal the stark and immediate cost of FGM’s continuance, particularly on girls.

Understanding the origins of this backlash in The Gambia is crucial. FGM has been a historic practice in The Gambia and most countries in Africa. It reportedly continued even after the ban in 2015, its persistence contested by feminists, women’s rights activists and survivors. However, its persistence has been contested by feminists, women’s rights activists and survivors. In August 2023, The Gambia made progress, three women were convicted for subjecting eight infant girls to FGM, the first prosecution since criminalisation in 2015. For feminists, survivors, and women’s rights defenders, this moment confirmed that decades of advocacy had translated into real accountability.

Almost immediately, an organised backlash emerged. Pro-FGM religious leaders paid the fines imposed on those convicted and launched public campaigns framing the ban as foreign-imposed, uncultural, and unislamic. The Supreme Islamic Council issued a fatwa claiming FGM is religiously required.

In 2024, a National Assembly Member introduced legislation to repeal the ban entirely, framing it as defending “religious norms” and threatening other protective laws, including child marriage prohibitions. Although Parliament upheld the ban following intensive advocacy, pro-FGM campaigners have advanced their challenge to the judiciary, arguing that criminalising FGM violates constitutional rights to religious and cultural freedom in The Gambia.

The scale and severity of FGM is stark. According to the 2019-2020 Gambia Demographic and Health Survey, approximately 73% of women aged 15-49 have undergone FGM, the overwhelming majority before the age of five. Crucially:

• 73% of affected women underwent procedures involving cutting and removal of flesh (WHO Type II).
• 17% were subjected to more severe forms involving stitching or narrowing of the vaginal opening (Type III).
• Nearly all women and girls affected live with the most invasive and harmful forms of FGM.

FGM in The Gambia is not only a social norm, it is actively defended and rationalised, making the legal protection of girls all the more essential.

What is at Stake in the Supreme Court

If The Gambia’s Supreme Court reverses the ban, the consequences will be immediate and far-reaching:

For girls: Legal protection vanishes. FGM becomes legitimised as a “religious and cultural right” rather than recognised as the harmful practice it is. Girls lose the one safeguard that could prevent them from being subjected to the practice.

For the state: Prosecutorial power disappears, law enforcement loses the ability to prevent, investigate, and prosecute FGM.

For other protections: Child marriage laws and other safeguards become vulnerable to similar “religious and cultural freedom” challenges. If patriarchal control can successfully cloak itself in religious language to override bodily autonomy here, it will be attempted everywhere.

For the region: This sets a dangerous precedent across Africa, undermines international standards, and emboldens anti-rights movements continent-wide. This could call to task similar contentions and challenges across national and regional protective treaties and laws.

An Observed Pattern We Cannot Ignore

Whilst The Gambia’s FGM crisis is urgent and specific, it reflects a broader, coordinated anti-rights backlash unfolding across the continent. We are witnessing systematic rollbacks: abortion access restricted and challenged LGBTQI+ rights criminalised, domestic violence protections undermined, women’s political participation resisted.

The playbook is consistent, frame women’s rights as “foreign imposed ideals”, mobilise religious authority, claim that protecting girls violates freedoms, then litigate whilst harm continues.

On this International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, Gambian feminists and women’s rights advocates are on the frontlines of this fight, and they need sustained solidarity:

• Flexible, long-term funding for legal defence, survivor services, and sustained organising
• Amplification with Gambian feminist experiences and expertise centred
• Accountability from governments and international bodies to uphold regional standards
• Long-term commitment that recognises this as ongoing resistance

When feminists in The Gambia fight for bodily autonomy, they fight for all of us. AWDF stands with Gambian feminists and women’s rights advocates defending the law. We call for sustained, resource-backed international solidarity, not just today, but in the long-term commitment that movement work requires.

Download the full explainer on The Gambia’s FGM crisis, including comprehensive data, legal timeline, and support mechanisms.

In a small fishing community nestled in rural Accra, four-year-old Adoley was once the embodiment of innocence, her voice echoing through the compound house as she sang rhymes and called on other children to play. Her mother, Naa Kwarley, sold smoked fish from the front of their home, making a modest living to support her only daughter. Life was not easy, but it was full of warmth and hope. That hope was violently shattered one sunny afternoon.

Adoley, full of her usual cheer, knocked on the door of a neighbour, Nii Otublohu, hoping to gather his children for their usual playtime. Otublohu, a 42-year-old fisherman, had just returned from sea. In the silence of the house, he lured Adoley into his room with the promise of cartoons, locked the door behind her, and committed an unspeakable act of defilement. When Adoley stumbled toward her mother, blood trailing down her leg, Naa Kwarley’s world collapsed. Overwhelmed by fear and rage, Naa Kwarley reported the incident to the local police. The case was quickly transferred to the Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU), a specialized wing of the Ghana Police Service.  Recognizing the urgency and trauma involved, DOVVSU referred Adoley and her mother to The Women’s Initiative for Self-Empowerment (WISE), a frontline grantee of the KASA initiative. While the perpetrator fled to sea in an attempt to escape justice, the police worked diligently and apprehended him upon his return.

Today, he is serving a 25-year prison sentence. But the real story of transformation was only beginning. WISE swiftly facilitated access to medical care and began therapeutic interventions through a clinical psychologist. Beyond immediate care, they laid the foundation for long-term healing, emotionally, socially, and economically. For Naa Kwarley, whose livelihood was disrupted, WISE extended financial support to stabilize her business and for little Adoley, the process of reclaiming childhood began with counselling, play therapy, and community protection measures.This is what the KASA Initiative is designed to do: respond, restore, and rebuild lives fractured by sexual violence. “You know the pain never leaves,” says Ms. Adwoa Bame, the Executive Director at WISE.

Under the KASA initiative, meaning “speak” in Twi, survivors are not merely recipients of aid; they are catalysts of change. In safe, inclusive spaces, girls and women are taught to recognize abuse, assert their rights, and support others, some even return as peer advocates, speaking boldly in communities once mired in silence and shame. She recounts that in places like Dome Kwabenya, Oshie, Bortianor, and notably Tifa, WISE has helped turn the tide on deeply entrenched norms. “When we first entered Tifa, the community often shielded perpetrators and blamed victims,” says Adwoa. “Today, those same leaders are referring cases to the police instead of resolving them privately.”

For Miss Bame this transformation didn’t happen by chance, WISE recognized the need to include traditional and religious leaders, not as obstacles, but as allies. She says community entry meetings evolved into co-created solutions as time went by.  Crisis Response Teams, trained by WISE, now serve as first responders before cases reach police or NGOs. These teams are embedded within the very fabric of the community, making interventions more sustainable and trusted. According to Miss Bame , the success of the KASA initiative lies not only in its reach but in its approach. Rather than imposing external frameworks, WISE adapts its methodology to suit each community’s social and cultural context. “We work with the chief and  with what exists—local languages, beliefs, and power structures and involve them to disrupt harmful practices from within,” Ms Bame says.

In addition to immediate support, WISE addresses root causes like economic hardship, gender inequality, and lack of education. By supporting survivors’ families and reintegrating girls into school, the cycle of vulnerability is actively broken. The Executive Director says WISE does not act alone; through partnerships with schools, health facilities, the Ghana Police Service, and local NGOs, a multi-sectoral response is being built. “Each partner brings unique expertise, ensuring that survivors like Adoley are protected, healed, and empowered from multiple angles,” she said. With support from the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) under the KASA! Ending Sexual Violence in West Africa program, WISE has become a model for how grassroots activism, backed by sustainable funding and strong networks, can shift not just individual lives but entire social structures.

Under the KASA initiative, WISE is investing in capacity-building within communities, training local teams, involving survivors in leadership roles, documenting best practices and ensuring that communities take ownership of the project with its responsibility. “As funding cycles shift, these structures will remain, girls will still speak up, leaders will still act and communities will still protect,” Miss Bame says. Despite global commitments like the Sustainable Development Goal 5.2, which calls for an end to all forms of violence against women and girls, a report by the Ghana Statistical Service reveals that 30 per cent of Ghanaian women have experienced sexual violence.

Sexual violence is not a moment but a culture which can be changed.

***

This is a commissioned feature story by Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey, a Journalist based in Ghana.

In one of the rural communities in the Ga-West district of Amasaman in Accra, Ghana, a  teenage girl Naa* was empowered to use her voice, and reported to her teachers that her father had been sexually abusing her, after her mother had passed away. He had lied to her that it was normal for fathers to have sexual relations with their daughters when their mother was not around. She had lived with this belief till her exposure to new information after joining a WiLDAF school club against sexual violence.

In another rural community was the pervasive belief, due to low-income households and general poverty, that if a girl does not have sex before twenty, she will have some type of cognitive challenge. In low income and rural communities, the imposed 32.5% total tax on sanitary pads as luxury items has a snowball effect on the prevalence of sexual violence. Young girls fall prey to sexual predators with the promises of financial support to buy pads.

Sexual violence, evidently prevalent in Ghanaian society is a key issue for feminist and women’s rights organisations. To address it, requires speaking up about the causes, and building systemic and sustained socio-cultural change, as well as challenging patriarchal norms and replacing them with stronger voices around positive norms. The African Women’s Development Fund Kasa! Initiative aims to do just this. Geared towards addressing and reducing sexual violence and its roots in West Africa, ‘Kasa’ means to ‘speak out’, this initiative encourages the strengthening of the voices of women and girls against sexual violence by partnering with local organisations and supporting their work under sexual violence. One of such organisations is Women in Law & Development in Africa (WiLDAF) Ghana.

WiLDAF is a pioneering organisation in women’s rights on the continent in general, and in Ghana, in particular. A legacy from the formation of the United Nations, WILDAF became one of the first women’s rights organisations formed on the continent to champion human rights and protections for African women and girls, sexual violence a major theme tackled under this purview.  WiLDAF’s Girl Empowerment Programme supported by the KASA initiative is dedicated to empowering young girls to fight against sexual violence. This work involves challenging limiting and false cultural beliefs, addressing issues of lack of access to resources and financial support, and encouraging girls to focus on their education for their economic empowerment.

Going back to the history of the issue, 2007 was a  landmark victory for women’s rights when the government passed the Domestic Violence Act which women’s rights activists had been advocating for. This act defined Domestic Violence  to include physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, and economic abuse within domestic settings. One challenge with the implementation of this Act was in awareness and reporting, especially in rural areas where many individuals were unaware that certain behaviours constitute domestic violence, leading to underreporting.

In work that continues today under the Kasa! Initiative, WILDAF took this on – going to rural communities to sensitise them on the issues, establish agents of community change, and provide pro bono lawyers to take up cases.

Sexual Violence & the Kasa! Initiative

Lois Addo, the Programme Manager for WiLDAF Ghana, highlights the high occurrence of sexual violence within youth communities in rural communities. She identifies lack of parental care, financial hardship, the advent of social media and easier access to harmful information, harmful cultural norms and beliefs and peer pressure as some of the underlying causes of sexual violence.

To address this, WiLDAF Ghana established school clubs in rural Junior High schools, Girls and Boys for Change, where selected champions of change amongst the students are selected, to push positive norms, grow confidence and self esteem, educated on knowing their rights and where to report violence. Girls in these clubs have become more assertive, can speak up on experiences they have gone through and challenge anyone who wants to sexually abuse them. In the case of Naa* shared earlier, her father was arrested and the girl removed from her harmful situation at home and put under the care and protection of Social Welfare. To ensure the longevity and ownership of these clubs in the schools, manuals and handbooks are developed such that beyond WiLDAF’s initial involvement, the clubs can run on their own. The formation of these clubs marked a reduction in cases of teenage pregnancy and an increased turnout of girls continuing on from Junior High School to Senior High. More girls were empowered to have aspirations, strive for good grades and to further their studies, in a landscape where the norm was to drop out and settle with a man who will take care of them.

Beyond this, WiLDAF also trains selected champions of change in rural areas to tackle sexual violence in these communities. Twelve people in each community, who are usually turned to,  resolve communal issues, were selected to undergo training to understand the laws. The community agents do sensitivity trainings with parents about the need to show care and attention to their children to prevent sexual violence, make referrals to state agencies and become watchdogs in the community.

Resilience & Forging Ahead 

The work of advancing women’s rights is never-ending. Lois Addo shares that some pushback in doing this work, particularly in sexual violence,  is challenging harmful societal beliefs. In the establishment of the school clubs, some parents did not allow their children to join because of the misconception that they were being overexposed.

However, the existence and resilience of pioneering women’s rights organizations like WiLDAF ensures that the work continues and women’s emancipation is achieved, in spite of these challenges.

***

Naa* name has been changed for privacy and safety reasons.

This is a commissioned feature story by Nana Akosua Hanson, a Media Practitioner based in Ghana.

Tucked away in a slum area in Mamprobi, in the heart of the capital of Ghana, Accra, about 15 minutes away from the Human Rights court is Women of Dignity Alliance (WODA). WODA plays a very important role in the lives of sex workers in that community and other slum areas in the capital. Sex work remains a profession that navigates a dangerous landscape, with sex workers constantly at high risk because they receive little to no societal or legal protections in many countries in Africa. Sex work is criminalised in most places on the continent. However, one would often find that in countries where it is illegal, it is still quite commonplace.

In Ghana, sex work is illegal but widespread. This has created a ‘black marketisation’ of sex work. Due to this, sex workers are vulnerable to abuse and have little to no recourse to justice or protection when their rights and freedoms are taken away. There is also an underlying prevalence of human trafficking and child prostitution, given fertile ground to thrive because of economic hardship. The stigma attached to sex work creates a general disregard for the lives and bodies of sex workers. In Ghana, they are robbed, abused and killed; and justice is difficult to get in a system that criminalises the work.

In such a climate, relief and advocacy for change are therefore spearheaded by sex workers themselves, community voices and activists. The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)  is supporting WODA’s  resilient work for the protection of sex workers’ rights and freedoms. WODA is built on the ethos of creating a safe space and network for women in slum communities and sex workers in these communities, providing social support, access to sexual health and human rights  information, HIV testing and counselling, empowerment, skills building and vocational training to provide an alternative livelihood for the sex workers, should they need this.

Mamle* was arrested by police for sex work, robbed, and then set free. She discovered WODA during an outreach and became a member. She is now a project officer in the organisation, leads police sensitisation projects as part of WODA’S outreach initiatives, serving as a listening ear and resource to sex workers who visit the centre to report abuse. Today, due to these efforts, some police stations in the vicinity have appointed some of their police men and women as designated officials that sex workers can go to to report police abuse. In a separate case, a 15 year old girl found solace in the vocational training that WODA provides. Her attendance and assimilation into the empowerment, the space provides, led to the discovery that her mother had been sexually exploiting her, by selling her daughter for sex. The case was amplified and police have taken it up. As at the time of writing this article, she is graduating from her vocational training, in the hope that it will give her a livelihood.

“My Body Matters” & the AWDF Kasa! Initiative 

‘‘My Body Matters’ is a flagship project funded by Kasa! Initiative to address and reduce sexual violence in West Africa. The project is aimed at challenging the misconception amongst sex workers that they have no worth. Through counselling, community outreach projects, Theatre, radio drama and more, ‘My Body Matters’ aims to empower sex workers to understand that they have dignity, to learn to speak up for themselves in a dangerous landscape with this understanding and are entitled to all rights of protection.

The organisation was founded and is directed by Susan Dartey. Dartey grew up in Jamestown, an old township on the coast of Ghana, formerly known as British Accra. In her childhood, she saw a lot of abuse in her household, but there were no avenues to express what were jarring experiences for a young girl. As a child growing up in Jamestown, she says, you are admonished by adults not to speak, only endure.  Her mother had gone through the trauma of being trafficked into Accra.

In Junior High School, joining the theatre club opened up an avenue of expression for her that would be healing and light a fire in what will later become her community work. Through storytelling, a learner-centred approach, music, games  interaction, enactment and audience participation, Theatre was an exceptional medium for exploring difficult issues such as sexual abuse in the community.  Theatre provided that empathetic  space like no other to tell one’s story and to affect an audience, such that a push for communal change becomes off the audience’s own volition.

Theatre for Development is one of WODA’s flagship community outreach programmes within slum communities in big slum communities in Accra such as  Jamestown, Old Fadama, Railways, Chorkor, Labadi  and Circle, to disseminate messages, and to conscientise communities, the police, power players, community leaders, and more  about the social protections for sex workers, destigmatise sex work and end cycles of abuse and violence against women. Radio drama is also used to reach communities beyond the organisation’s reach, partnering with local radio stations in those communities to air radio drama sharing the stories of the women and encouraging discussions about the issues. Every performance is a sex worker’s story.

The center is open everyday for sex workers to walk in for social support, information and rehabilitation.

Societal Stigma 

Dartey reflects that most of the sex workers in the community have the perception that anything from sex work is not valuable. This translates into the perception that their bodies have no worth and they do not matter.

Society hammers in this misconception in various ways. Marash, recounts stories of sex workers who have been killed by clients who did not want to pay for services rendered; of sex workers who have  simply vanished; of sex workers preyed on for ritualistic purposes because of the prejudice that sex workers’ bodies have no worth; and as in her own case, are abused by police whose mandate is to protect.

Sex workers who are lesbians also find a safe space in WODA. In 2024, Ghana’s parliament passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, a draconian anti-lgbt bill criminalising the identity of being LGBT+ and associated sanctions in the community as a means of state crackdown on this community. The bill did not become law, however, the societal hatred and stigmatisation it ramped up remains a fixture with far reaching consequences in Ghanaian society because of the inevitable intersectionality of oppression. For example, with the parliamentary passage of the anti-LGBT bill, WODA being a space for only women, experienced a lot of threats due to a growing misconception in that community, that the space was a lesbian organisation. The organisation had to change locations.

Dartey, however, has a positive outlook on what the future holds after ten years of advocacy and movement for change.

After ten years of advocacy, Susan notes that there is a marked reduction in sex workers reporting cases of abuse. More sex workers in the community  have joined the organisation, taking up staff positions furthering the work of the organisation as community facilitators, project officers, and as trainers sensitising on issues of child trafficking, abuse of sex workers, rehabilitation and more.  As at the time of writing this article, another group in vocational training will be graduating. Many sex workers have found their voice – in  becoming aware of their inherent rights and dignity, in learning how to protect themselves, and in speaking up for themselves.

As Susan says quite aptly, “When a woman finds her voice, she feels safe, she can protect herself, and her dignity is respected.”

The Women of Dignity Alliance calls for the decriminalisation of sex work, and for social protections of sex workers to be put in place. Sex work is work. Sex workers’ dignity must be protected.

***

Mamle* name has been changed for privacy and safety reasons.

This is a commissioned feature story by Nana Akosua Hanson, a Media Practitioner based in Ghana.

“I was scared and could not sleep properly. I would jump at the slightest sound of footsteps. I did not have a reason to live,” recalls Hagar Boakye, her voice trembling as she remembers the darkness that once consumed her life.

Thirty years ago, Hagar was sexually exploited by a stranger when she desperately needed money for her father’s medical care. The trauma shattered her sense of safety, left her emotionally paralysed, and plunged her into a darkness she never imagined she could escape. Today, in 2025, this 46-year-old woman sits with confidence and strength, her eyes steady and full of resilience. In a region where traditional customs are often prioritised over the welfare of vulnerable populations, particularly women and children, Hagar found her voice and began resisting sexual violence from her husband after years of silence.

This story highlights the meaningful work of Women and Youth Forum for Sustainable Development (WYFSD) in safeguarding the lives of survivors, empowering them to become advocates, and providing counseling to help them overcome their fears and face society with confidence.

WYFSD was established in April 2004 in response to a survey conducted in the Aowin Suaman district in the Western North Region of Ghana, which measured women’s human rights and health, bodily autonomy, and sustainable livelihoods.

The organisation has successfully created sustained awareness on Gender Based Violence prevention, established a platform of women champions against Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG), created clear reporting channels for VAWG cases, and strengthened the efforts of religious and traditional authorities in supporting VAWG prevention.

Through the KASA project by the African Women Development Fund (AWDF), a funding partner of WYFSD, educational and advocacy programmes have been implemented in several communities in the region to protect survivors, especially women, from the trauma, stigma, and fears they encounter after sexual abuse.

KASA, meaning “Speak Out,” has over the years assisted many NGOs in Africa, including Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal, in initiating various projects and interventions to help eradicate sexual violence. The project was launched by AWDF together with the Ford Foundation and Open Society West Africa.

Hagar was empowered and trained on resisting sexual violence through the KASA project implemented by WYFSD in partnership with the Department of Social Welfare in the district. She is among other women who have struggled and are overcoming the emotional trauma and stress of sexual violence.

WYFSD empowers women and girls to demand their human rights, bodily autonomy, integrity, and improved livelihoods. Recognising that recovery is multi-dimensional, they connected with Hagar through their empowerment programmes and guided her through the process of finding her voice to resist the violence and helped her reclaim the control she had lost.

According to the World Health Organisation, one in three women globally experience sexual and physical violence in their lifetime. In Ghana, underreporting and stigma remain persistent barriers to justice and healing.

WYFSD, led by Madam Rose Ackah, the Executive Director, is working to change this narrative not only through support services, but also through community education programmes, outreach initiatives, and partnerships with relevant stakeholders to create survivor-friendly reporting mechanisms.

In the first phase of the project, funds from AWDF were channelled toward empowering and educating survivors and other women within the region to resist sexual violence. “Survivors do not need pity from anyone; they need justice and support to thrive,” says Madam Rose Ackah. Hagar’s story is one of thousands, but each time one woman finds healing, we all take a step forward in the fight against sexual violence. Today, Hagar volunteers with other survivors as a peer counsellor, empowering other survivors by giving them voice, strength, and support to deal with their emotions. “I advise them to be strong and persevere, as they are bigger and stronger than their issues and what they have been through,” she says. Hagar is no longer defined by her pain and struggles. She is a woman reborn, not in spite of her trauma, but through the strength she found in facing it.

The partnership between WYFSD and AWDF has over the years been impactful and transformative for survivors like Hagar and her colleagues. “We had no one to talk to until they reached out to encourage and motivate us after the assault,” she said. The transformational work of WYFSD continues, but requires additional support to advance their mission and protect more survivors in the Western North Region and beyond.

***

This is a commissioned feature story by Victoria Agyemang, a Journalist based in Ghana. 

11 October 2025 marks International Day of the Girl. From classrooms to community halls, AGE Network Nigeria shows that when a girl lifts her voice, a nation begins to listen.

In Nigeria, AGE Network  is dismantling barriers that hold girls back  from child marriage and gender-based violence to economic exclusion and lack of access to education.

Education at the Core and economic Empowerment

Through scholarships, mentorship, and school retention programmes, AGE Network  ensures girls not only enter school but also thrive and complete their studies. By training girls in digital literacy, entrepreneurship, and vocational skills, AGEN equips them with independence and pathways to leadership.education alone is not enough in a context where economic exclusion continues to silence girls’ ambitions.

That is why AGE Network  invests in economic empowerment as a companion to education. By equipping girls with digital literacy, entrepreneurship, and vocational skills, AGEN enables them to build independence and resilience. These skills become stepping stones toward leadership, giving girls the tools to not only survive crises but to lead change in their families, communities, and nation.

Advocacy & Voices of Change

AGE Network  creates platforms for girls to speak for themselves — from producing advocacy videos to engaging policymakers.

“When I speak about child marriage, I know I am speaking for thousands of girls who cannot.”
— AGE Network beneficiary

Girls across Nigeria are stepping forward as advocates for change:

• “The girl I am is focused. The change I lead is helping girls avoid teenage pregnancy and achieve their dreams.”
  — Alex Hannah, girl’s advocate at AGE Network
• “The girl I am is bold. The change I lead is ending sexual exploitation so every girl is safe in school.”
  — Joseph Destuny, girl’s advocate at AGE Network
• “As a climate leader, the change I lead is keeping my community clean and safe for tomorrow.”
  — Mfonlso Kingsley, girl’s advocate at AGE Network

Watch all the testimonies for Happy International Day of the Girl 2025 here

Bintou Mariam Traoré

On 11 October 2025, International Day of the Girl, Boxgirls Kenya reminds us that a punch can break silence, a pen can rewrite history, and a girl’s voice can spark a movement.

Boxgirls Kenya has shown that boxing is not just about sport ,it is a powerful entry point for girls to claim voice, visibility, and leadership. Their work has evolved from the ring to national advocacy, and each output reflects the bigger mission: enabling girls to tell their own stories and transform limiting narratives.

Lulu Magazine (2024)

Written entirely by girls, Lulu Magazine is more than a publication—it is a declaration of authorship.

“When I write, I feel like my voice matters. I know another girl somewhere will read this and dream bigger,”
— Young contributor, Lulu Magazine

What began in Nairobi has now reached schools across Kenya and is traveling globally, proving that girls are not only subjects of stories, but authors shaping narratives beyond borders.

🔗 Read Lulu Magazine | Instagram

The Bloody Truth (Documentary & Campaign)

As the documentary highlights:

“According to the 2019 population and housing census, the population of Kenya is 47,564,296, and females represent 24,014,716 (50.5%). This means that a significant number of women and girls menstruate every month and therefore face challenges related to unsafe and inappropriate sanitation and hygiene.”

This groundbreaking documentary exposed the harsh realities of period poverty. Girls revealed how the lack of sanitary products forced some into unsafe practices or even transactional sex.

“We just want to learn without shame,”
— Girl featured in The Bloody Truth

The outrage sparked the Uzuri Project, a nationwide advocacy campaign that pushed menstrual justice onto the national agenda and demanded free sanitary products in schools.

🔗 Watch the documentary

Coach Sophia’s Journey (Video Story)
Sophia’s story embodies Boxgirls’ spirit of resilience. Once constrained by cultural and religious restrictions, she broke barriers to become a boxing coach.

“My father gave me reasons why I could not do boxing—because I’m a Muslim and because boxing is a male-dominated sport. Still, under his nose I kept training. At the end of the year, I told him Boxgirls Kenya had paid my scholarship. He asked me, ‘What did you say Boxgirls do again?’”
— Coach Sophia, Boxgirls Kenya

Her journey inspires a new generation to see beyond imposed limits and claim leadership in their communities.

Perita, a young “mini-coach” and beneficiary, explains:

“Because of boxing, the coach has taught me proper hygiene as a girl. We’ve even been given pads by our coaches. We’ve been told how to take care of ourselves so we don’t engage in things like early pregnancy that can cause us to drop out of school. I can control myself and not engage in bad company.”

🔗 Watch Sophia’s story 

Bintou Mariam Traoré

When we talk about African women, girls and gender diverse people, too often, the world hears stories about us and not by us. We need to think differently about who tells the story and how.

The African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF)  CEO, Francoise Moudouthe, recently featured  in a Podcast conversation together with other feminist leaders from Africa including, Graca Machel, a global advocate for women and girls rights and a member of the Elders and Satta Sheriff, a climate justice and child rights advocate representing the next generation of African change makers to talk about investing in funding and building movements that centre women’s voices in telling women stories .

Hosted by Adelle Onyango, Kenyan media personality and young change maker, on the Global Dispatches Podcast a special series on Future of Africa, the conversation was a deep dive into  investing in women’s agency and centering our own voices in the telling of our stories..

Moudouthe challenges donors and policymakers to back feminist movements with  flexible and sustained funding. She notes that investment is not always financial. It is about creating access and opening platforms. Looking into the future she calls for three things:

Coordination – Building on the solidarity we have

Sustainability- securing resources and

Movement building through strengthening collective power

Listen to this intriguing conversation as Moudouthe tackles the issue of building movements across the  African continent and reimagining women’s stories.

Podcast source: Global Dispatches Podcast

Francoise Moudouthe CEO of the  The African Women’s Development Fund recently challenged the philanthropic sector to rethink its role in today’s crisis driven world. Speaking during the opening plenary of  the recently ended Philea Forum 2025, Moudouthe observed the contrast between how the  philanthropy sector and feminist movements are navigating the current ongoing crises differently. She observed philanthropy’s sense of “panic” and contrasted it with the resilience and adaptability of African feminist movements  who are approaching this moment from a distinctly different approach that,

“...we’ve been here before, We’ve experienced this loss of life, loss of rights, loss of resource, loss of allyship. We’ve survived it and we’ve built back and we’ll do it again…”

Drawing from African feminist movements’ experiences, she shares what it takes to meet this  moment using  three transformative lessons from the movement  that she believes philanthropy can learn from African feminists. She notes that philanthropy needs to centre justice – social and gender justice are the foundations for the change we want to see. Secondly, to centre movements  as they are best placed to make justice happen and lastly to undertake feminist philanthropy

Watch more from Moudouthe’s submission at the Philea Forum 2025 below

For more information about the Forum visit philea.eu

In the quiet corners of northern Ghana, where cultural silence often shrouds the suffering of sexual violence survivors, 23-year-old Rahina AbdulRahaman found the courage to speak out. Her story represents the transformative impact of organisations like Savannah Integrated Women’s Development Agency (SWIDA-GH), dedicated to healing the wounds that society often prefers to ignore.

Rahina AbdulRahaman was 8 years old when she was sexually abused by a family friend. The perpetrator used gifts and threats to maintain secrecy. “I was always left under his care because my parents trusted him,” AbdulRahaman recalls. “I was in pain all the time, but I could not tell anyone.”

She did not disclose the abuse to her parents or friends. Years later, at 23, she enrolled in the Female Leadership and Mentorship Academy cohort 4 program by SWIDA-GH, where she met Hajia Alima Sagito.

SWIDA-GH is a dynamic women-led organisation dedicated to advancing gender equality, economic empowerment, justice for women, and social justice in society. The organisation is established to bridge the gap between the government and underserved communities. SWIDA-GH works within rural, peri-urban, and urban communities, focusing on empowering women, youth, and persons with disabilities. One of its key areas of work is combating sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) through advocacy, education, and support services.

“We do a lot of sexual and gender-based violence work to ensure that young people, women, and persons with disabilities live to their fullest,” says Hajia Alima Sagito Saeed, Executive Director of SWIDA-GH.

Through conversations, AbdulRahaman was informed about the KASA! initiative by the African Women Development Fund (AWDF), a funding partner of SWIDA-GH.

KASA, which means “speak out,” has supported organisations in Ghana, Senegal and Nigeria, implementing various interventions to combat sexual violence. It was launched by AWDF with the Ford Foundation and Open Society West Africa.

To combat sexual and gender-based violence, SWIDA-GH conducts workshops and campaigns in rural communities to raise awareness about sexual violence, consent, and women’s rights. The organization engages traditional leaders, religious figures, and men as allies in preventing SGBV. They use radio programs to educate communities on gender-based violence (GBV) laws and reporting mechanisms.

For legal support and advocacy, SWIDA-GH collaborates and partners with Ghana Police’s Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) to improve survivor protection. The organization organizes youth and school-based programs to educate schoolgirls on sexual rights and how to report abuse. They also train teachers to identify and respond to signs of sexual violence among students.

The project lead of SWIDA-GH, Madam Juliet Wepaare Ako, who is excited about SWIDA’s progress in combating sexual and gender-based violence, added that the organisation has five safe spaces where survivors can comfortably come to share their stories.

“We have five safe spaces that have been provided, and this is a huge thing for us because we are gradually changing people’s perception on speaking up and getting support. Having vantage points in the communities where people can comfortably walk in and get support is significant for us. Aside from that, Total Life Enhancement Centre Ghana (TOLECGH) is also on the ground. When we get people who need support, we refer them to TOLECGH.”

During a group session, AbdulRahaman shared her truth for the first time and was later referred to SWIDA’s counseling partners, TOLECGH, who helped her understand what she was going through and that it was never her fault.

In 2021, with strategic funding from AWDF, SWIDA-GH, led by Hajia Alima Sagito Saeed, formed a groundbreaking collaboration with TOLECGH, a Tamale-based mental health organisation specialising in psychosocial and trauma-informed services.

Peter Mintir Amadu, Clinical Health Psychologist and Executive Director of TOLECGH, explains the synergy: “SWIDA provides safe space and community trust. We bring evidence-based therapeutic interventions. Together, we’re creating a model for holistic survivor care.”

Empowered, Rahina began sharing her story to break the culture of silence. Though healing is a process and not easy, she found strength in her voice. Thanks to the innovative partnership between SWIDA Ghana and Total Life Enhancement Centre (TOLECGH), survivors like AbdulRahaman are finding pathways to psychological healing.

The partnership between SWIDA-GH and AWDF has been transformative for survivors like AbdulRahaman. “Before the funding, we were just mainstreaming activities, but when we got the funding, we became intentional and picked it up as a whole project, reaching out to more people,” Hajia Alima Sagito explains.

The story of SWIDA-GH is still being written, and it needs more hands on deck to help support and empower more survivors. Funds from AWDF go into ensuring that survivors receive immediate medical attention and long-term counseling, provide free legal representation to help survivors navigate court processes, offer skills training and grants to break the cycle of poverty, and conduct GBV workshops in schools and villages, challenging harmful norms and encouraging reporting.

***

This is a commissioned feature story by Agnes A. Attoh (Ewurama), a Journalist based in Ghana.