(I)NTACT: Fighting together against a harmful traditional practice During an official visit to Benin in 1995, Christa Mueller was confronted with the brutal tradition of female circumcision for the first time. After she had been asked for help by the wife of the former president of Benin, she began to collect donations in order to support local initiatives in the fight against the cruel ritual in Benin. Subsequently, Christa Müller founded the International Action against Female Genital Mutilation – (I)NTACT e. V. – in Saarbruecken at the beginning of 1996. The purpose of (I)NTACT is to provide information about the problem of Female Genital Mutilation and to combat the glaring violation of human rights. Today, (I)NTACT holds more than 1000 members and hundreds of donators in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxem-bourg, Italy and many other countries. There are prominent members among them, such as Lea Rosh, the initiator of the "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe" in Berlin or the co-founder of (I)NTACT Dr. Norbert Bluem (CDU), television presenter Guenther Jauch, Hanny Lightfoot-Klein (author of "Prisoners of Ritual") or Prof. Horst Eberhard Richter. They all support the initiative enthusiastically.

(I)NTACT supports the struggle of women and men in Africa

Approximately 130 million women and girls worldwide are victims of Female Genital Mutilation. The centuries-old custom is still performed by about 200 ethnic groups, mainly on the African continent. In almost all affected countries, local organizations fight circumcision with campaigns. (I)NTACT offers financial and organizational support to these African organizations. It favours those with a grassroots approach in their campaigns, thus the ones which cooperate directly with the population.

Former circumcisers receive small loans from (I)NTACT to open up new sources of income. Whenever possible, they are being involved in the struggle against the old custom and can therefore keep the social prestige they enjoyed by reason of their traditional profession.
(I)NTACT supports and supported awareness campaigns in Benin, Burkina Faso, Eritrea, Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Togo and Chad. Current key countries are Burkina Faso, Togo, Senegal and Benin.

 
Successful campaigns in key country Benin

After ten years of intensive engagement in Benin, the assistance of (I)NTACT was rewarded with a great success: The end of the tradition of female circumcision was proclaimed to the world public in the course of a solemn act of state on 9 April 2005. The great fetish priests of formerly circumcising ethnic groups rejected the tradition. All known circumcisers, a total of 216, have abandoned their bloody profession. Most of them opened up new sources of income, thanks to a small loan of (I)NTACT. Today, more than 1200 voluntary village committees monitor that the girls in their villages are no longer mutilated.

(I)NTACT provides awareness training in Germany

Roughly 30,000 circumcised women of African origin live in Germany. Five thousand girls in our country are potentially threatened by genital mutilation. Experts for medicine, law and education are increasingly faced with this custom. (I)NTACT therefore also carries out information campaigns in Germany, serves as contact for concerned persons and assists migrant associations with their awareness projects.