KMG Ethiopia (previously known as- Kembatti Mentti Gezzimma -Tope or Kembatta Women’s Self-Help Center-Ethiopia) is an indigenous civil society organization founded by Bogaletch and Fikrte Gebre, sisters who grew up in rural Ethiopia, where gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation/excision (FGM/E), was endemic, impacting virtually 100% of all girls and women until KMG began its work about a decade ago. Women were typically valued little more than the cows they milk, received little education, and were subjected to a variety of health problems due to FGM/E that included fistula, pain with intercourse, prolonged labor, scared and closed vagina, and death in childbirth, prolapsed uteruses, and a pre-disposition to HIV/AIDS.



(picture: a women caring a big clay-pot of water)



KMG Ethiopia was granted a legal indigenous NGO status on Nov 28, 1997 and re-registered under the new Charities and Societies law as a Resident Charity in November 2009. The organization was founded with the belief that if women are empowered, their human rights observed and their talents and creativity nurtured, the lives of both men and women would improve.

Currently KMG ETHIOPIA operates in 24 Woredas of Kembatta, Tembaro, Wolayita, Guraghe, Gaamu, Zones and Special Woredas of Darashe and Konso of Southern Nations Nationalities and People’s Regional State of Ethiopia (SN-NPRS) and West Arsi Zone of Oromiya Regional State, reaching out to more than 457,739 direct and 2,749,434 indirect beneficiaries, 60% of whom are women.

Before it began its intervention, KMG ETHIOPIA conducted a baseline study in 1998 that showed that 100% of all girls in the then Kembatta, Tembaro and Alaba Zone had been subjected to female genital mutilation. A 2008 UNICEF survey of attitudes and behavior in Kembatta, Tembaro Zone showed an amazing inversion: 97% of all men and women opposed female genital mutilation.

(picture UNICEF survey)

We estimate that hundreds of thousands of girls have been spared genital mutilation. The change is so great, in fact, that across our region, young men now seek uncut girls to marry and whole communities, including children, openly discuss these once-taboo subjects at open-air meetings once limited to only elders. Over 2000 pool of trained facilitators work among communities and every community keep tabs on every uncut girl in its neighborhood.