Healthy Tomorrow/Sini Sanuman

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Healthy Tomorrow/Sini Sanuman

We work to stop female genital mutilation of girls and women in Mali, in Africa, and around the world. Donate at our website - StopExcision.net

A major focus of our work these days is in District I of Bamako, where we are educating many community leaders and elected officials and putting up billboards and putting messages on the air. We also hold meetings in market places around town which spread our message to about 300 people a day. Mali will vote soon on having a specific law against FGM. Our president was invited to the legislature to

speak in favor of our bill, which we've crafted with input from many legal experts, and we expect a vote soon. We need your contributions to support our grassroots organizing, media and lobbying efforts against FGM in Mali. You can donate via PayPal by clicking here: http://goo.gl/gvEMCH

05/07/2026

Our good volunteer Kaniba Baguiya has stayed in touch with one of the excisers she convinced to stop in 2004, Maimouna Kanté. Recently Maimouna called her because she has heard about some women in the village of Fombabougou who were trying to arrange for their daughters to be cut. So they set up a meeting in the village where one of the women explained that she had called their exciser but heard that she had stopped and why (Kaniba had visited their village last August.) That got her wondering and then, when she heard Kaniba, that sealed the deal. None of those girls were cut. We are getting somewhere! See StopExcision.net.

05/05/2026

Our good volunteer Kaniba Baguiya has stayed in touch with one of the excisers she convinced to stop in 2004, Maimouna Kanté. Recently Maimouna called her because she has heard about some women in the village of Fombabougou who were trying to arrange for their daughters to be cut. So they set up a meeting in the village where one of the women explained that she had called their exciser but heard that she had stopped and why. (Kaniba had visited their village last August.) That got her wondering and then, when she heard Kaniba, that sealed the deal. None of those girls were cut. We are getting somewhere! See StopExcision.net.

02/17/2026

On Tuesday, February 10, the village of Farabana celebrated their decision to stop excising with a ceremony of 250 people and a signed Declaration. In the photo is the exciser apologizing to the village and the girl she cut, beside the girl and the village chief.

The village is two hours out of Bamako, where our Sini Sanuman office is, in the House of Hope. The village chief invited people from 4 neighboring villages and many of them came. Two radio stations Radio Afrika and Radio Maliba covered the event and Radio Afrika plans to make a little film about it.

It was a botched excision in July (not that there are good excisions) that got the village thinking seriously about this custom. When Nassan Danté excised 12-year-old Sanougué Cissé, she almost killed her. Everyone knew how sick she was for weeks after being cut and Nassan could not walk around the village without hearing insults about Sanougué's condition. The village chief called Kaniba in and she took her to the doctor. Then the village got together when the girl got out of the hospital to talk about FGM. At that meeting, Nassan asked Sanougué in front of the village if she forgave her and the girl said "No!"

Her position must have softened in the meantime because they walked into the ceremony on Tuesday, hand-in-hand. Both of them spoke.

Farabana is now our 23rd village to have given up the practice of FGM with our encouragement. Even though there is a national law now, it still seems that people get the idea better when their community makes a collective decision. (StopExcision.net)

***almutilation

02/13/2026

On Tuesday, February 10, the village of Farabana celebrated their decision to stop excising with a ceremony of 250 people and a signed Declaration. In the photo is the exciser apologizing to the village and the girl she cut, beside the girl and the village chief.
The village is two hours out of Bamako, where our Sini Sanuman office is, in the House of Hope. The village chief invited people from 4 neighboring villages and many of them came. Two radio stations Radio Afrika and Radio Maliba covered the event and Radio Afrika plans to make a little film about it.
It was a botched excision in July (not that there are good excisions) that got the village thinking seriously about this custom. When Nassan Danté excised 12-year-old Sanougué Cissé, she almost killed her. Everyone knew how sick she was for weeks after being cut and Nassan could not walk around the village without hearing insults about Sanougué's condition. The village chief called Kaniba in and she took her to the doctor. Then the village got together when the girl got out of the hospital to talk about FGM. At that meeting, Nassan asked Sanougué in front of the village if she forgave her and the girl said "No!"
Her position must have softened in the meantime because they walked into the ceremony on Tuesday, hand-in-hand. Both of them spoke.
Farabana is now our 23rd village to have given up the practice of FGM with our encouragement. Even though there is a national law now, it still seems that people get the idea better when their community makes a collective decision. (StopExcision.net)

02/03/2026

I had the best conversation yesterday with Kaniba Baguiya, one of our most devoted volunteers with my project in Mali, trying to stamp our female ge***al mutilation (FGM). She was telling me about visiting a village not too far outside Bamako because someone had told her she had heard some people were thinking about having a few girls cut there.

So she went to Fombabougou, invited by her friend and co-activist Maimouna Kante, that she had convinced to stop excising in 2004, to see what was up. One woman said she had been looking for someone to cut her daughter but couldn't find anybody. The woman who used to go to their village to cut girls said she was no longer doing it and told her why. Kaniba had been to her village, Minkougo, in August of last year and convinced her and 2 other excisers to stop. Once she heard that that woman was no longer excising and Kaniba explained all the reasons why it's bad to do that, she no longer wanted to get her girl cut. Some of the women she had heard about who were wanting to get their girls excised weren't there that day, so Kaniba made a plan to go back and talk to them another time.

I've been working on this since 1997 and it really seems to be working. A few times recently we've had experiences where pretty much everybody said that they'd stopped and hardly knew anybody who was still cutting their girls. This was a really fun report to get. Maimouna Kante is quite an important activist in our movement these days, explaining to people why she stopped and calling in Kaniba if she finds some people she can't convince.
One nice thing is that they have a law in Mali, finally, that criminalizes FGM. People can go to prison for 10 years for doing, though no one has been prosecuted yet.
Here are Kaniba in the green dress and Maimouna, ex-exciser since 2004, who's still working on getting people to stop.
(StopExcision.net)

***almutilation

01/30/2026

I had the best conversation yesterday with Kaniba Baguiya, one of our most devoted volunteers with my project in Mali, trying to stamp our female ge***al mutilation (FGM). She was telling me about visiting a village not too far outside Bamako because someone had told her she had heard some people were thinking about having a few girls cut there. So she went to Fombabougou, invited by her friend and co-activist Maimouna Kante, that she had convinced to stop excising in 2004, to see what was up. One woman said she had been looking for someone to cut her daughter but couldn't find anybody. The woman who used to go to their village to cut girls said she was no longer doing it and told her why. Kaniba had been to her village, Minkougo, in August of last year and convinced her and 2 other excisers to stop. Once she heard that that woman was no longer excising and Kaniba explained all the reasons why it's bad to do that, she no longer wanted to get her girl cut. Some of the women she had heard about who were wanting to get their girls excised weren't there that day, so Kaniba made a plan to go back and talk to them another time.
I've been working on this since 1997 and it really seems to be working. A few times recently we've had experiences where pretty much everybody said that they'd stopped and hardly knew anybody who was still cutting their girls. This was a really fun report to get. Maimouna Kante is quite an important activist in our movement these days, explaining to people why she stopped and calling in Kaniba if she finds some people she can't convince.
One nice thing is that they have a law in Mali, finally, that criminalizes FGM. People can go to prison for 10 years for doing, though no one has been prosecuted yet.
Here are Kaniba in the green dress and Maimouna, ex-exciser since 2004, who's still working on getting people to stop.
(StopExcision.net)

12/13/2025

Come see what we have for sale today and tomorrow at Unity Somerville, 10 - 4, corner of William and College Ave. We're raising money to help girls and women in Mali live lives free of FGM. Healthy Tomorrow has helped our partners in Mali at Sini Sanuman for over 20 years and we're happy with what's happening there - a recent law against FGM, 180 excisers who have stopped cutting girls because of our intervention, 2,000 posters up around the country publicizing the law, countless meetings where people talk about why not to do FGM. For questions or to help, call 617-501-9125.

12/08/2025

If you missed our rug sale this past weekend don’t despair! Will be doing it all over again next weekend, December 13 and 14th at unity Church Somerville on the corner of William Street and College Avenue. Enjoy these pictures of a few treasures you might find, besides rugs!

12/07/2025

We had a great day at our rug sale at St James Church in Cambridge. Many people bought rugs and other beautiful and fun things to raise money for our anti-FGM project in Mali. Come around tomorrow and see what we have, 10-4pm. You can also just donate online at StopExcision.net.

12/01/2025

We're happy that finally Mali has a law against FGM. Help us continue to spread the message by coming to our rug and vintage sales coming up Dec 6 and 7, 10-4pm at St James Church 1991 Mass Ave Cambridge and Dec 13 and 14, 10-4pm at Unity Somerville, 6 William St. We are working on spreading the word with our poster and also radio shows we are putting on the air. StopExcision.net.

Address

14 William Street
Somerville, MA
02144

Telephone

+16177766524

Website

http://www.StopExcision.net/

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