Susan McLucas

I work with a group in Mali, West Africa, Sini Sanuman, to end female genital mutilation (FGM.)

Because of friends in Mali asking how they could help, I started the Pledge Against Excision, which now has 68,000 signatures. My Malian partners are using these signatures now to press for a law against FGM.

During my third trip, in 2000, I produced an album, “Stop Excision,” which is still played on the radio in Mali. I created five music videos with some of the biggest stars in Mali and ex-excisers, and these music videos appear regularly on Malian TV. I spent days sitting in front of the directors’ offices at the TV station, to convince them to put them on TV. I think they thought that the only way they could get rid of me was to do it.

One of my favorite moments in the videos is when a Adama Yalomba’s wife (he’s a big star in Mali) laughs off the insult of being un-cut and says she’s happy about that, after which Adama gives her a big thumbs up. It makes me happy to think of 4-million people seeing these videos every time they come out.

We have also convinced 11 villages to stop excision. It was fun being part of that process, singing the anti-FGM song I’d learned in Bambara. One day my singing that song seemed to help convince an exciser to stop excising.

When I first heard about FGM, I was heart-broken and couldn’t believe this was still going on these days. I became obsessed with it, thinking of the 130-million women around the world who live with having had their genitals cut.

Our group in Mali, Sini Sanuman, is the only group that has put billboards up against FGM and we are known as a place to go if you have been seriously injured from being excised. Most recently in April 2015, when we organized a 3,000 person meeting in a stadium where students who had created theater and poetry against FGM shared their work. With my American group Healthy Tomorrow, I raise money for this group and give part of my earnings in my Bicycle Riding School to keep the project going.

Older workers have lots of experience to bring to whatever task they turn their minds to and are often less interested than younger workers in making a name for themselves.