Bondo Without Blood

FGM is a form of violence against women and girls, part of a complex and interlocking web of violations girls experience across their social and sexual lives. FGM is a pervasive issue in Sierra Leone, affecting over 90% of the population. Despite this, small pockets of girls and their allies are pushing back against FGM and other forms of violence in communities across the country – their strategies for freedom and safety deeply rooted in their particular cultural contexts.

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Purposeful supports community activists across Sierra Leone to develop and scale their strategies. We believe that the collective power that comes from membership to girls and women only spaces could offer the key to a feminist future free from violence. As such, we see the Bondo Society as a potentially critical space for women and girls and we are committed to working with and through partners to understand what a feminist re-imagining of these spaces – full of inter-generational solidarity and free from cutting – could look like.

Watch our film on the Bondo Without Blood Movement we produced with feminist sisters across Sierra Leone.