I’m going
on a journey into the unknown and I want you to join me as I face challenges
and miracles.
I’m not
climbing Kilimanjaro or hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. My journey is not as
physically gruelling as those heroic feats. Mine is a journey of the mind and
heart; a journey with a goal, not for personal achievement, but to make a
contribution to others.
I am
documenting my journey in this blog called Humanity Matters. Throughout my career as a journalist I’ve written
about what matters; Family Matters, Relationship Matters, Health Matters, Travel
Matters, Midlife Matters. And all these subjects really did matter at different
stages of my life.
However
as I approach 60, I’ve arrived at a vantage point where one subject concerns me
deeply and urgently: the suffering of humanity. I am gripped by a passionate
desire to work to reduce suffering and increase joy.
I want to
live a life of purpose and meaning and I want to Make a Difference - a positive
one – to the lives of others. When this desire took hold five years ago, I
lacked focus. I did some volunteer work in Ghana in 2012. My efforts were well
intentioned but generalised and undirected. There are so many worthy causes and
charities to work for, I wanted to embrace them all.
Then two
years later I started asking myself the question, ‘If I could pick one worthy
cause to champion, what would it be?’ And ‘Bingo’ I got the answer.
I’ve long
been horrified by the shocking human rights violation, the vicious crime
against the innocent, the ultimate form of child abuse – the deliberate maiming
of millions of little girls through the practice of female genital mutilation
(FGM).
I
researched and wrote about the subject for over two years to understand the
complex issues and to discover the most effective way to put an end to an
entrenched custom that dates back 2000 years that condemns little girls to an
unimaginable trauma and a lifetime of pain and suffering.
Can you
imagine 8000 girls a day, that’s three million girls a year, are subjected to
FGM around the world. Tragically 30 million girls in the next 10 years will be
maimed if we do not stop this crime. Already 200 million women are living with
the horrendous health consequences of being cut as a child.
That’s
when I discovered the work of pioneering American educator Molly Melching, who while
living in Senegal for many years developed an innovative program of empowerment
for girls and women.
Her work,
through the charity Tostan, is so successful; I want to join her team to
introduce the life-changing program across Africa.
“Tostan”
is a Wolof word meaning the hatching of an egg, the precise moment the chick emerges
from the shell. The evocative word expresses the essence of ‘break through’ and
‘new life’.
And I am
inspired. I want to stop FGM – not just from a safe distance – but on the ground
– in the country where a rusty razor blade is used on tender flesh on a daily
basis.
And so I
am setting off on a journey next week – a slightly courageous one - to Senegal
in West Africa to be trained in Molly’s method with the big dream of taking the
Tostan program to remote villages throughout East Africa.
This is a
heavy, disturbing issue and it would be easy to feel outraged with anger and
bitterness that fuel a fire in the belly against
this child abuse and the old women who inflict it, the mothers who allow it
and the patriarchal social system that demands that ‘brides be clean’.
However I
would rather be motivated by conviction; to be inspired by what I stand for, which promotes value (while anger
devalues). And what I stand for is empowering women in Africa; human rights and
social justice; protecting children; humanitarian work and compassion and
kindness.
Do you
stand for these values? Will you join me on my journey of discovery and read my
posts because Humanity Matters; it really does.
