Support for Girls
The life of girls in sub-Saharan Africa is strongly shaped while they are still young. In many developing countries, girls are married at the age of 14 and shortly afterwards they already expect their first child. More then 14 million girls between 15 and 19 years of age give birth every year (more >). Teenage pregnancies do not only force them to quit school but also brings along great health hazards: Teenage girls have a doubled risk to die during pregnancy or birth.
With our development projects and advocacy work, DSW increases awareness in Europe and in Africa itself and advocates for educational opportunities. Our objective is to break through the circuit of unwanted pregnancy, school dropouts, unemployment and poverty. We aim to empower women and adolescents to live a healthy and self-chosen life.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM)
- Bild: Carsten Luther
An estimated 100 to 140 million girls and women in the world are victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). In addition to life-long traumas, they often suffer from potentially fatal infections, bleeding and complications during childbirth. The harmful practice is among the main reasons for the high maternal mortality rates in Africa and Asia.
FGM is mostly performed by laypersons using primitive tools such as knives, glass cullets or razor blades to remove the clitoris, often with partial or complete excision of the labia majora. The most severe form of genital mutilation includes cutting the labia minora. The intervention is carried out without anesthesia.
This inhumane tradition is practiced in 28 countries of Africa and parts of Asia and the Middle East. The girls on whom the operation is performed are often under 14 years old. Through the cutting, they are supposed to enter into adulthood in a "clean" condition. Women on whom FGM has not been performed are often not considered as adequate wives by the respective ethnic groups.
Since the UN General Assembly of December 1993, Female Genital Mutilation is considered to be a specific form of violence against girls and women and thus an act of human rights violation, as confirmed by the International Conference on Population and Development in 1994 in Cairo at which its abolition was demanded.
