Bucking the trend of a global increase in female genital cutting (FGC), communities around the world are renouncing the practice through community-led conversations. Aissata, a Senegalese survivor of FGC, went on to play a leading role in supporting her community’s renouncement. This project is a collaboration between Aissata, Orchid Project, Tostan and the PositiveNegatives’ team to bring awareness of these transformative community-led conversations, and is generously funded by the Brooks Foundation.
More details on ‘Aissata’s True Story: Choosing a World Free From Female Genital Cutting’.
Bucking the trend of a global increase in female genital cutting (FGC), communities around the world are abandoning the practice through community-led conversations.
Aissata, a Senegalese survivor of FGC, went on to play a leading role in supporting her community’s abandonment of FGC. This comic and animation are her true story – a story that is vital for the international community to hear, as more than 200 million girls and women are living with the consequences of FGC around the world, and a further 3.9 million girls are at risk of being cut each year – including young girls living in the UK (1).
Aissata’s and her community’s powerful story is desperately needed in the global conversation about FGC. It’s too easy to ignore and marginalise what cannot be seen. Working with Aissata, at her home in the Fouta, to visualise her experiences was an honour for the PositiveNegatives team. This animation brings to life for a wider audience the effects of FGC and these powerful community-driven conversations. In doing so Aissata brings more people into that global conversation – and sets the agenda.
Pioneering organisations like Orchid Project and Tostan are supporting these transformative community-led conversations. This animation is a collaboration with PositiveNegatives, and generously funded by the Brooks Foundation.
‘Aissata’s Story’ is published under a Creative Commons license. This means it can be freely downloaded, printed and used for any not-for-profit purpose as long as PositiveNegatives and the artist are attributed, and the artwork is not edited.
Educational resources using the animation and comic are currently in development. For more information on this, and other PositiveNegatives projects please sign up here.