From awareness to action: Youth leaders tackle teenage pregnancy

PAYAO, Philippines – “Let’s wait outside the church,” Jenine Ortiz, 23, said while walking with a group of youth leaders. They were scheduled to meet a 16-year-old teenage mother with her 1-year-old baby.

For indigenous women in the Philippines, women-friendly safe spaces extend a bridge to healthcare

DATU ODIN SINSUAT, Philippines – In remote, secluded villages of the province of Maguindanao, Jacqueline and a team of community volunteers connect other indigenous women to essential health services, augmenting local efforts to improve maternal, child and newborn health.

Female genital mutilation in infancy still common, Gambian mothers say

BASSE, The Gambia – Hulay Damba, 55, spent years performing female genital mutilation on girls in her community. Her role as a practitioner was passed down from her grandmother. “It was what I was taught,” she explained.

From tradition to transformation: Ending female genital mutilation in Guinea-Bissau

“The new generation is different”: In Djibouti, survivors and allies lobby to end female genital mutilation

DJIBOUTI/TADJOURAH REGIONS, Djibouti – “I still see the knife, and the lady who held me down,” said Hawa’a Mohamed Kamil. Now 30, she was subjected to female genital mutilation at just six years old – an experience that left not only physical but also psychological scars.