Local women are trained as Women Extension Workers and Traditional Birth Attendants. Extension Workers act like community social workers – counselling families and raising awareness of girls’ rights – while Birth Attendants focus on safe pregnancy and childbirth. Together, they challenge FGM and child marriage and intervene at critical moments to protect girls.
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION IN 2026.
An obvious wrong has
an immediate solution.
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Yes, I'll help end FGM.
Female Genital Mutilation continues to put girls at risk across regional Ethiopia. Your gift today can help our project partner APDA work with communities to prevent FGM, empower women and protect girls from harm.
Together, we can help end FGM and create a safer future for girls and women in Ethiopia.
Above: Halema, 20, from Dagaba, Afar, was married at 16. Though she does not believe in FGM, her daughter was subjected to partial FGM as a baby - a decision made by the community.
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Donations over $2 are tax-deductible in Australia only.
You will receive a personalised receipt in your name.
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WHAT YOUR DONATIONS DO
Solution in action
For such long-held and deeply ingrained traditions, change must be rooted in education and happen with communities, not against them.
Training local women
Workshops for leaders
In many rural areas, clan and religious leaders hold more authority than formal law. Intensive workshops bring these leaders together to examine the medical, legal and human impacts of FGM and child marriage, build consensus against them, and equip leaders to champion safer, rights-respecting norms in their own communities.
Media awareness
FM radio ads and film screenings in the markets spread educational messages far beyond the reach of roads and clinics. By repeating clear, trusted information in local languages, media campaigns help shift attitudes over time, grow awareness of human rights, and build momentum to end traditions like FGM and child marriage for good.
FGM practitioners
Women who perform FGM are invited to conferences on the health risks and the lack of any religious requirement for cutting. This work cuts to the heart of ending the practice, and is combined with wider community education so families do not simply seek another cutter. Some practitioners go on to train as Women Extension Workers or Traditional Birth Attendants, becoming powerful advocates for change.
Empowering youth
Young people rarely have a say in community decisions, even when those decisions place them at risk. Youth-to-youth workshops and facilitated dialogues with clan leaders give girls and boys a platform to speak respectfully about their experiences, learn their rights and have a say over the traditions that shape their futures.
Rural literacy
In remote pastoralist areas, formal schools may be nonexistent or out of reach. Alternative basic education offers flexible, community-based learning for children and adults. As literacy grows, so does the ability to question harmful traditions, understand the law and imagine different futures beyond “this is how it’s always done.”
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CHANGE IS HAPPENING
Long-term progress
This timeline starts in the 1980s, when LiveAid first turned global attention toward Ethiopia, and reflects not one organisation’s efforts but decades of communities, local leaders, governments and international partners working together in the same direction.
1980s: Harmful practices widespread
Both FGM and child marriage are widespread across Ethiopia, with national prevalence commonly estimated at around three-quarters of women and girls or more.
1985: LiveAid
LiveAid brings Ethiopia to global attention, galvanising international concern and laying the groundwork for immediate aid and long-term change.
1989: Ethiopiaid founded
Ethiopiaid is founded in the UK with a mission to break the cycle of poverty in Ethiopia.
1990–1991: Mutilation, not circumcision
The Inter-African Committee on Traditional Practices and the World Health Organisation begin using the term “Female Genital Mutilation” rather than “female circumcision”, recognising the severity of the practice.
1993: APDA founded
The Afar Pastoralist Development Association (APDA) is founded to respond to the needs of isolated, nomadic communities in Afar, including tackling FGM and child marriage.
1995: Minimum age of marriage 15
Ethiopia sets the minimum legal age of marriage at 15, an early legal step that still falls short of global standards on child marriage.
2000: Child marriage officially illegal
The revised Family Code sets 18 as the minimum legal age of marriage for both women and men, making child marriage illegal in federal law.
2000: FGM 80%
About 80% of women aged 15–49 have undergone FGM (Ethiopia Demographic & Health Survey 2000).
2004–2005: FGM criminalised
Ethiopia’s new Criminal Code comes into force, explicitly criminalising FGM and other harmful traditional practices.
2005: FGM starting to decline
Around 74% of women aged 15–49 have experienced FGM, down from 80% (Ethiopia Demographic & Health Survey 2005).
2005: Rates of child marriage
49% of women aged 20–24 are married before age 18 (Ethiopia Demographic & Health Survey 2005).
2011: Child marriage starting to decline
Down from 49%, now 41% of women aged 20–24 are married before 18 (Ethiopia Demographic & Health Survey 2011).
2016: Progress increasing
By 2016, about 65% of women aged 15–49 have undergone FGM, and 40% of women aged 20–24 are married before 18 (Ethiopia Demographic & Health Survey 2016). It’s clear progress, but millions of girls are still affected.
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SUPPORT CHANGE THAT LASTS
One gift can help meet urgent need.
Ongoing monthly support enables lasting, meaningful change—empowering our project partners on the ground to plan, deliver, and sustain programs that meet the needs of their communities and strengthen them for the future.
BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR TODAY
