Interview on www.cagem.org

K M Rehan Salahuddin: We must express our support and gratitude for your efforts, but we would like to know that exactly from which idea you have started this service?
CAGeM: The women that have been genitally mutilated in the United States need a voice. There are more women genitally mutilated in America than in Europe but there are several campaigns against the practice in Europe but none in America. We established an office in New York to combat the practice here because the New York metro area has the highest amount of genitally mutilated girls and women and those at risk.
K M Rehan Salahuddin: We can see there are some different types of campaigns offered on your website? Would you please explain how you plan to let those suffered get benefited from your effort?
CAGeM: We are offering free medical treatment and reconstructive surgery to survivors of female genital mutilation here in the US. In Africa, we have built the first free hospital for victims of female genital mutilation where in addition to general treatment, they can receive free clitoral reconstructive surgery, a procedure developed by French surgeon Pierre Foldes, that in July was clinically proven to allow women who have undergone female genital mutilation to achieve clitoral orgasms and reduce pain. The hospital currently has over 500 women on the waiting list for the surgery.
K M Rehan Salahuddin: In your website there is a tab “Volunteer” would you please explain how people can join this activity as a volunteer?
CAGeM: Yes, we need a lot of volunteers for the walkathon and other services. We do not have any paid staff so all of our funding goes directly towards our programs. Volunteers keep the organization going and are a very important part of the campaign. There is an online application on our website under the volunteer tab.
K M Rehan Salahuddin: What about the strategy for eradication? How is it different from other campaigns?
CAGeM: CAGeM approaches female genital mutilation from a health perspective as opposed to an activist perspective. Since we were founded by African women physicians in 1998, we are very sensitive to the cultures to which we target and have to use a very culturally sensitive approach. Although clearly female genital mutilation is a human rights violation we never address it as such in the villages as it would be seen as imposing a “western idea” on them.
K M Rehan Salahuddin: How to be a sponsor? How much does it cost? How can an interested company contact cagem.org?
CAGeM: We have different sponsorship opportunities. You can sponsor a girl who is at risk of undergoing female genital mutilation to be brought to a safety shelter, given protection, food, and education so she can live a healthy live and be exposed to wider opportunities that she can use to make a difference in her community. You can also sponsor a patient who is on the waiting list for clitoral reconstructive surgery. You can also sponsor one of our events. The next one coming up is the Restoring the Rose Walkathon on September 15, 2012 at Riverside Park in New York City. A sponsor can sign up for any of these opportunities at our website at cagem.org
K M Rehan Salahuddin: In your website you are selling the movie ‘Desert Flower’? Why have you chosen this movie?
CAGeM: Waris Dirie who is the subject of the movie is one of the first celebrities to speak out against female genital mutilation. She actually abandoned her modeling career in 1997 to speak against FGM, the same year that the founders of CAGeM were coming together. So she really brought the issue to the forefront and helped us gain support for our campaign. In 1999, one of founders was awarded a millennium mover and shaker award by Glamor Magazine for work on FGM and the following year Glamor awarded Waris, the woman of the year award for the same reason so her story is very inspirational to us.
K M Rehan Salahuddin: What are your plans for future? What types of services are going to be added to your tally?
CAGeM: We hope to establish more free hospitals in rural areas that currently don’t have access to healthcare. Victims of FGM are usually in remote areas and have to walk for several hours just to get treatment, some die on the way. We want to change that. We feel it will greatly reduce maternal and infant mortality. We also want to expand our immigrant outreach program in the US to protect the vulnerable girls in the US who are subjected to FGM. We hope to encourage congress to pass the Girl Protection Act of 2011 so that it would be illegal to transport girls out of the country to be mutilated. Many girls in the US, US citizens are often flown out of the country during the holidays to have the procedure in a ceremonial and unhygienic setting, and then brought back.
K M Rehan Salahuddin: Would you please like to say anything to our audience/viewers?
CAGeM: Join our campaign. The more voices we have against this practice, the better chances we have of eradicating female genital mutilation in this generation.