‘The Association of Good Mothers’ is growing in numbers and in confidence to speak out.  The mothers themselves have formalised it, and I am delighted to find at this visit that it now consists of:

A President: she is in charge of monitoring the women who receive the goats. She is also the one who calls for meetings and chairs them.
A Vice President/Secretary: she valuably replaces the president in case she is not available or absent for meetings. ·
A Secretary of Information: her role is to inform each member of the association of news, updates, meetings and progress in the fight to stop FGM.
An Administrative Secretary: As she is literate, she is in charge of all the paper work and the signings into the association. She also provides advice for the president.

Then, another two persons from the Health Care Centre (CSCOM) have accepted our invitation to be advisers to the woman of the association.

First adviser: the midwife. She knows very many women in this vast village and knows the problems they are facing. Due to her respected role in the society and in the health field, she can provide them more advice about the bad effects of FGM as she has seen so very much go wrong in the delivery room because of it. ·

Second adviser: she is volunteering at the health care centre. She is in charge of the organisation of chats/debates on child nutrition, health reproduction and all the problems women can have during the pregnancy and after giving birth. She organises these chats during immunisation days at the CSCOM. Like the midwife, her role in the association will be the advise which can educate women on the negative side of FGM.”

 Kadi Tangara, RDIC (July 2012)

The Association of Good Mothers Grows in Strength