Female circumcision remains one of the most harmful and degrading abuses of women around the World. Since 1992 ICROSS has actively campaigned against female genital mutilation and has actively followed harm reduction programmes, community health education and children’s rights work. In many traditional communities over 90% of girls are mutilated . In many traditional tribal groups we work with Type lll circumcision is most common . This infibulation or pharaonic circumcision, is the removal of all external genitalia. “The inner and outer labia are cut away, with removal of the clitoris The girl's legs are usually bound together for the the wound to heal. The immobility causes the labial tissue to bond, forming a wall of flesh and skin across the entire vulva, apart from a hole the size of a matchstick for the passage of urine and menstrual blood, which is created by inserting a twig or rock salt into the wound.(ref 1 ) This abuse of women’s rights is widely practised throughout Africa. We are working with traditional communities in our public health programme to protect the rights of girls and to introduce alternative rites of passage and less harmful practices. vaginal and pelvic infections, dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, and infertility as well as increased risk of fibroids cysts and other recurrent problems are common in genital mutilation. Urinary retention, urinary infection, wound infection, septicemia, tetanus, hepatitis HIV, incontinence, continual bleeding, severe infections , keloid scarring and loss of sensation are among a long list of harmful effects from these unnecessary mutilations. There is greatly increased risk of neonatal death and delivery complications as well as long term harm to the mother and child. ICROSS has been actively fighting to reduce mutilation over the past twenty years. This month marks the 20th Anniversary of our FGM initiative . Over the last 20 years we have reduced the number of full Type lll circumcisions by over 7,000 cases and reduced the risk of infection , sepsis and tetanus by over 35,000 cases. Our work continues in collaboration with partners and campaigners nationally and internationally. We need your help today to protect children from this invasive mutilation and protect them in 2012-2013. Please work with ICROSS FGM programmes and help make female circumcision a thing of the past. Dr Michael Meegan , International Director noted " while progress has been made internationally its coming far too slowly and there is no room for complacency. We must all redouble our efforts to bring about the changes needed to reduce risk and protect girls from this harmful mutilation" DOleNtilai and other Senior ICROSS managers spoke today of their commitment to protect young girls from harm “ we need all our friends to join with us as we scale up this programme to end practices that only harm and hurt children, we must all work harder to end any custom that inflicts pain and suffering on our own children “ ICROSS marked the 20th anniversary of its female circumcision programme with a commitment to scale up prevention programmes and community training. http://icrossinternational.org/ https://icrossinaction.com/donate.html