A grandmother's love
In southern Senegal the practice of female genital mutilation/cutting has been traditionally carried out by female elders, leading to poor maternal relationships in the community. But thanks to a World Vision scheme, attitudes are now changing towards the practice, and girls like Dialan are now benefitting from the life experience and guidance of their grandmothers, who have been taught how to safeguard the young girls' health.
"I spend every evening with my grandmother,” says Dialan. “She uses that time to explain to me the importance of staying in school and developing my future. Being with my grandmother everyday enables me to understand and learn a lot of things in life: how to do linen, how to cook, how to weave cotton. My grandmother is a huge influence in my life. She manages my schedule every day, and it is she who tells me what to do at each moment of the day.”
Dialan is 16 years old and lives in southern Senegal, where World Vision’s Girl's Holistic Development Project (GHD) has been helping to improve the lives of girls in the area. The project works to unite grandmothers with their granddaughters as a way of changing attitudes and discontinuing bad practices that do not contribute to the development of young girls. In the past daughters would not dare allow grandmothers to approach their children, but now maternal relationships are getting stronger.
The GHD project has also been educating communities about the dangers of female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C). Families have become more protective of the health and well-being of their daughters. The project uses grandmothers’ life experiences to help develop deeper and more empathetic relationships and increase the trust between grandmothers and granddaughters.
“The evening games that my grandmother organizes for young girls are very important - they keep the girls at home. Because of the good mood and atmosphere, young girls do not feel the necessity to leave their houses, and are not tempted to go and join their boyfriends,” Dialan says.
One of the biggest achievements of the project is that it's helping to unite the community against FGM/C - a practice that is now no longer accepted.
“FGM/C is not good. I will never advise any girl or mother to undergo or let her girls be victims of that practice. My grandmother, who is a traditional midwife, is always confronted with cases of women experiencing a lot of pain when delivering babies because of it.”
The improved awareness that the project has created has been positive for the community, according to Dialan's grandmother, Fatoumata.
“The main lady in the village, who mutilated the young girls, is now well-informed and sensitive to the negative consequences of FGM/C. In our area we have fewer and fewer cases now. The main lady who practiced FGM/C has changed her mind, and she is now involved in the education of girls in the local committee,” Fatoumata says proudly.
Fatoumata uses her role as a traditional midwife to fight FGM/C in the bluntest way possible – she invites anyone trying to defend FGM/C to witness the suffering of women during childbirth.
“Every time I was faced with a complicated case because of a FGM/C practice, I called the lady to witness the pain of the mother during the delivering. After several invitations she realized how painful it was,” explains Fatoumata.
Now working as a community health worker, Fatoumata also has the opportunity to help educate young girls besides Dialan on their health and well-being, and she hopes that in time, the threat of FGM/C will cease and her efforts will be able to shift to improving healthcare for new mothers and newborn babies. World Vision’s sponsorship programmes in Senegal focus on improving healthcare, access to food, and education for children. We are also campaigning to end violence against children in all its forms, including FGM/C, as a member of Action 2015, a global campaign created to raise the profile of Post-2015 Process.