Agnes Pareyio was awarded U.N. Person of the Year in 2005, heading a Kenyan Safe House Center, Tasaru Ntomonok, for girls who escape (or are thrown out of) their homes in Africa for refusing traditional cutting and/or removal of their genitals (FGC/FGM).  Ms. Pareyio began her educational and rescue work using a carved model of a lower female torso to explain different levels and results of genital mutilation.  She walked from village to village.  Her work has not been easily accepted and in some instances she has been threatened by those seeking to stop her (as by a threatening father, see above quote).

Although declared a crime in Kenya in 2001, it continues.  The wide-spread tradition of FGM/FGC has been cited as harmful to the health of girls in numerous ways but has not been eradicated.  It exists in several other African countries, Asia and the Middle East.   Estimates of between 2 and 3 million girls each year are subjected to this practice. 

Ms. Pareyio’s Center is funded by UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund (working with governments and organizations in a global effort to eliminate forced child marriage and FGM/FGC).  The Center provides temporary shelter, education for the girls, their families, and communities, as well as skills training. The Center also provides an alternative, intensive coming-of-age ritual for the girls; demonstrating respect for cultural tradition, but without violence.

* Playwright and author of the Vagina Monologues, supporter of Ms. Pareyio’s work.