The global campaigner
Despite her own health battles, Ann-marie Wilson campaigns to eradicate the horrific practice of FGM
Sometimes you witness something that lodges in your heart. For me, that moment came when I was working for an aid organisation in Darfur and I met an 11-year-old girl. She was heavily pregnant – the result of a rape – and we helped to deliver her child. Appalling in itself, but this young girl almost died in the process, because at the age of five, her genitals had been cut. It was my first encounter with the practice known as female genital mutilation. To me, this was the most horrifying practice of the modern age, and I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.
I used my savings to fund myself through three degrees so that I could speak with authority on the subject of FGM. And then I set up a charity, 28 Too Many, founded on the idea that FGM is practised in 28 countries in Africa. My job as director was a voluntary one. I took no salary in order to raise the early funding. Friends donated what they could, and people close to the cause who heard about what I was doing became my volunteers.
I lobbied governments, produced research reports and worked on awareness campaigns, and my work also took me to countries such as Kenya and The Gambia, where FGM is practised.
Although there are no medical reasons for FGM, and it isn’t advocated in any religious texts, among many communities, it is rooted in tradition. For survivors, the repercussions can be devastating – from pain when urinating and having intercourse to infertility, miscarriage, or even dying in childbirth.
There were times when I felt like we were getting nowhere. But, four years ago, I got a place at the United Nations General Assembly, where activists from all over the world gathered to lobby UN representatives. I was determined to get FGM on the agenda, and I did – the UN agreed to adopt a resolution to ban FGM worldwide.
I’ve also made progress in this at home. Last year, I won an advertising award for a campaign aiming to let people know that this practice goes on in the UK, too. I feel that FGM is, at last, part of the national agenda.
Now I have a new and very urgent reason to continue the fight. I have always known my work will be my legacy, but this has become all the more important since I was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer.
I will continue to fight for this cause for as long as I am able, and this Christmas, like every other, that 11-year-old girl is in my thoughts. She is the reason I do what I do – so that some day, little girls like her will grow up in a world free from fear and pain.
‘It is the most horrifying practice of the modern age – I can’t stand by and do nothing’ ANN-MARIE WILSON