Developing local partnerships: future opportunities
Visit to a rural medical centre in the Oromia region, Ethiopia, October 2018.
The Foundation continues its in-depth support and awareness-raising work. As the programme alongside UNICEF has just ended, the priority is to get further into the field. In order to emancipate these societies in an ever more broad and effective way, the Fondation Espoir has been developing a new project to fight against female genital mutilation directly through the help of local associations.
Its objective is to contribute to the work of the Ethiopian government aiming at the complete abolition of female genital mutilation by 2025. For this purpose the partners will enhance their work in two spheres: education and medical care.
In addition to raising awareness of the risks related to this cruel practice and harmful consequences for health that it brings, the project will provide medical care in the most distant and rural regions of Ethiopia. This medical care will be specifically adapted to women and girls who have already undergone genital mutilation.
For this purpose it is planned to establish and set up medical mobile units in the Afar region and provide free gynecological and obstetrics consultations. Other planned activities include strengthening the support of health centres and expanding local medical staff, increasing the supply of medications and contraceptives, free transportation of pregnant women to health centres and pediatric care. Finally, the Foundation gather statistics on FGM and infibulation based on gynecological examinations in order to monitor the effectiveness of its actions.