Former FGM traditional practitioner Kibirty stands as a symbol of change in her community. Learning the practice from generations past, she witnessed at first hand the agony endured by circumcized girls, and she vowed to renounce FGM once and for all. Today, she proudly declares her abandonment of FGM, recognizing its detrimental effects on girls' lives. No longer will girls and women suffer pain during urinatio...

“When I met this man, I thought I had been given another chance at love,” says 41-year-old Lungile*. She shifts uncomfortably on her seat. “I had no idea that things would turn out the way they did.” Initially, her second marriage brought renewed hope, until one day, “The once-loving man I married turned into a monster,” she says. He stopped buying food and clothes for his new family, and the trouble began when she a...

For humanity to progress, people must be counted in all their diversity, wherever they are and whoever they are. These were the words of UNFPA Executive Director Natalia Kanem this World Population Day. Indeed, to go uncounted is to be made invisible and as a result, left unserved. This contributes to a displaced 10-year-old girl being left with no health care.