Reducing violence against women is a central plank in KMG's mission statement.

We train women and representatives from a wide variety of communities and disseminate information on citizens’ rights and responsibilities, thus establishing knowledge bases. By iInitiating grass roots movements against gender-based violence, we work with communities to develop women leaders.

We train women to assume political leadership at all levels. As a result, a majority of women and girls understand their rights in the zones where have worked. Women have assumed elective and appointed political positions from the kebele to federal levels. We promote good governance by offering training on legal, constitutional, and democratic rights and responsibilities to the government sector, law enforcement agents, social courts, and local elders as well as communities at large. Currently, the courts and the police recognize, and by and large respect, the human and constitutional rights of women as citizens.

Harmful Customary Practices are built upon long-held beliefs that discriminate against and violate the human rights of womankind in Ethiopia. They render girls and women socially, economically and politically powerless. Sanctioned violence (female genital mutilation bride abduction, widow inheritance, domestic violence) both reflects and reinforces inequities between men and women.

When we conducted our first baseline study in 1999, nearly 100% of women in our operating areas underwent FGM. Just three years later, in September 2002, the first “Amazing Wedding” took place in Hobich-Haka. The bride, Genet Gerimma, wore a placard declaring, “I’m not circumcised, Learn from me,” and the bridegroom, Addisie Abosie, wore similar sign stating, “I am happy and proud to be married to an uncircumcised, whole girl.”

This was a turning point, the thunderbolt that shook the region.

In 2004 KMG created an event called Whole Body, Healthy Life- Freedom from Female Genital Mutilation. On October 31, 2004 an estimated 90,000-100,000 people from diverse remote villages, zones, different backgrounds and religions, NGOs, diplomats, UN agency representatives, and 26 journalists streamed into a Durame soccer stadium for a colorful, jubilant and historic celebration of 30,000 uncut girls. The timing of this festival was symbolic and potent: traditionally, it was the season to celebrate young girls’ emergence into womanhood as marriageable young women after their “dirt” had been removed, healed and groomed. The Whole Body festival now occurs annually, replacing the old ritual with a new one, as communities gather to honor courageous uncut girls, the young men who marry them, mothers, and the communities who have accepted them.

Communities agree that “the yearly event celebrates who we are and revives our cultural heritage, while eliminating the harmful ones.” Local elders affirm the communities’ resolve “Not to hurt our daughters any more.”

Currently, different studies, including a 2008 study sponsored by UNICEF launched this year, show that many changes and transformations have been observed resulting from a decade of intervention in our operational area. FGM has been dramatically reduced to less than 2 %-3%, not just by fiat or laws, but by the consent of communities that have learned the reasons these customary practices are harmful. Today, FGM has been virtually eliminated in many communities. To sustain this victory, young uncut girls have been organized into different clubs and groups, as new social force to support each other and conduct peer education on interrelated issues. Whole communities, educated on the dangers of FGM, are vigilant. It is a profound change – and one we are scaling up.

Empowering marginalized minorities and social outcasts has been part of KMG’s human rights work. Fuga (potters) communities are the most marginalized and despised social outcasts in Kembatta/Tembaro zone. Fuga people, particularly women, are artisans. They are also the designated circumcisers (removers of the dirt). They are denied rights to property, land, information, education, and live at the margins of society. KMG has been facilitating, advocating and engaging communities in discussions about Fugas’ human rights on the one hand, and simultaneously educating the Fuga community itself about their basic human entitlements.

The Fuga’s confidence and integration into the larger community has improved markedly. Fuga people are learning labor-saving technologies. Their children are admitted to schools, and their land rights are being acknowledged. They can go to restaurants and shops without fear. For the first time, they are participating in Idirs-community self-help group activities.