Rugiatu Neneh Turay

It is no secret that the social injustices in Africa are growing daily. We often hear of ways we can help, by sending monetary aid or going on mission trips, but Rugiatu Neneh Turay took fighting the injustices to a higher level.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a procedure that more that 130 million women have undergone. It is viewed as an ititiation ritual in many African cultures, even though in international aid and rights groups it is seen to be a massive human rights violation. The procedure is often done in extremely unsanitary conditions, with unsterilized tools, which has potential to spread the AIDS virus.

Turay was born in Seirra Leone 26 years ago, and underwent FGM when she was thirteen years old. After the death of her cousin, she knew she had to take action. She formed the Amazonian Initiative Movement. The organizations focus is on raising awareness of the dangers of FGM. Since performing this ritual is a huge source of income in such poor areas, AIM must also face the challenge of not only convincing people to stop doing the "surgery" but provide them with other options for providing for their families.

Turay is more than qualified for this job because after she fell victim to this terrible ritual, she continued on to perform it on twenty three other women. She says that at that point in her life it was the only way for her to feed her children.

Since starting AIM the orgaization has registered over 1,2oo practitioners who have agreed to stop practicing if given a different means of income.


Sorry I dont have a picture... I'll keep looking for one!