Commitments

Vitaly Malkin shares his emancipation project, by attacking harmful traditions that deprive people of their freedom and by supporting young talents from all backgrounds in their access to the best training.

Fighting against female genital mutilation

To counter this ultra-majoritarian practice in Ethiopia where it is most widespread in the world, (with relative indifference of Western countries), is the challenge that Vitaly Malkin and his Foundation Espoir. which advocates against genital mutilation, have made for themselves.

Despite harmful consequences of this practice, genital mutilation is still seen as an entry gate to social acceptance and marriage in many countries. Vitaly Malkin’s aim is to emancipate the societies and persons whose bodies have been bruised, damaged and diminished by these practices. In order to oppose them better, the Foundation continues to give voice to women and men who have been too often relegated to the status of victims or barbarians.

Through confronting this otherness without making any moralizing judgments, Vitaly Malkin came to question our society’s neglect of another mutilation, male circumcision. The situation around it will soon be the subject of dedicated actions from Malkin and his team. The ambition of the new project is, too, question the dominant social norms and the underlying weight of religions and their legacies.

Key figures

• 300,000+ girls and women identified and treated in Afar and Somali regions
• 8 awareness-raising campaigns were conducted in the media
• 700 religious leaders recruited and mobilised in the campaign to prevent FGM

Emancipating talents

For Vitaly Malkin, emancipation also means emancipating talents. He has started a support programme enabling young people to fulfil their vocations in various areas, such as dance, classical music or chess.