Orchid Project has a simple vision: a world free from female genital cutting.

FGC* is a globally recognised abuse of human rights, child rights and women’s rights. Nevertheless, 3 million girls a year are cut in Africa alone.

Orchid’s work aims to end the silence and taboo around FGC and to push for FGC to take the position it deserves: high on the priority list.

We want to shine the light on excellent work being done at country levels, where thousands of communities are choosing to abandon FGC.

This grassroots movement of communities abandoning FGC leads us to believe that it can be ended within a generation, in the same way that foot-binding ended.

Orchid’s aim is to enable an end to female genital cutting globally, with a significant reduction by 2025. Orchid will do this by:

• Working with partners who deliver a sustainable, community-led end to female genital cutting
• Communicating the success of these programmes
• Advocating at the highest level for increased resource to end FGC

* There are many debates about which terminology to use. “Cutting” seems less of a judgemental phrase to us than “mutilation” bearing in mind the communities we wish to work with. For the Orchid Project, the important thing is not to get diverted too much into a debate about language, but keep working with everyone to end it!  Sometimes we will use the terminology interchangeably as FGM/C (like UNICEF).