COVAW

15/09/2026

Ailepu means "arise" in Maa. For five years, it was also a COVAW project in Suswa Ward, Narok East, supported by The Girl Generation's Africa Led Movement.

Over five years, we worked with 13 communities, from Oloshaiki to Olasiti, through ongoing dialogue with elders, parents, young people, and local leaders, until the case against FGM was being made by the community itself.

FGM is violence, and preventing violence against women and girls is core to everything COVAW does. This is what that work looks like on the ground: slow and owned by the people living it.

10/09/2026

World Su***de Prevention Day 🕊️

Sometimes, what overwhelms us is more than one person should have to carry: violence, fear, isolation, discrimination, financial pressure. It builds up, and it can feel impossible to hold alone.

But support can make a difference. Listen. Check in. Stay. Connect someone to help.

Your life matters. Your safety matters. You matter.

COVAW supports women and girls experiencing violence through counselling, legal aid and referrals. You don't have to carry it alone, reach out.

📞 Call 0800 720 553

***dePreventionDay

03/09/2026

Survivor voice takes time.

One of the reflections that stayed with us from Justice for Girls 2026 was the reminder that meaningful survivor leadership cannot be built in a one-year project cycle.

For one survivor, it took 23 years to speak publicly about her experience with FGM.

Creating spaces where survivors can move from silence to connection, healing, and leadership requires time, trust, and sustained support.

We need to invest in survivor-led spaces not only to hear survivors, but to support them to shape the work, lead it, and define what change looks like.

Survivors should not have to rush their healing to fit a funding cycle.

03/09/2026

We’re here in Naivasha for Justice for Girls 2026: Ending FGM/C and Child Marriage, joining advocates, survivors, activists and partners from across Kenya, Africa and beyond.

At a time when funding for programmes protecting women and girls is under growing pressure, this convening creates space to ask: How do we shift power and resources, sustain the work, and ensure survivors and girls remain at the centre of change?

As the conversations continue, we’ll be listening, learning, and sharing reflections from the sessions and voices shaping this movement.

📍 Naivasha, Kenya
📅 2–4 September 2026

02/09/2026

COVAW’s Brandy Kemunto shares her reflections on what it will take to end FGM/C and child marriage within a generation.

Read the full piece: https://justiceforgirls2026.org/turning-passion-into-progress-a-spotlight-on-brandy-kemunto/

“Survivors should not have to choose between healing and advocacy.” - Brandy Kemunto

We echo this. Ending FGM/C and child marriage means building a movement where survivors can lead, advocate, and shape solutions, without having to put their well-being aside.

At COVAW, we believe survivor leadership must go hand in hand with healing, dignity, safety and meaningful power in decision-making.

As the Justice for Girls Convening & Festival gets underway, we’re carrying these reflections with us as we listen, learn, and engage in the conversations shaping the movement.

02/09/2026

𝐂𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤. 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐬 𝐬𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥.

Childcare involves far more than watching children. It means feeding, comforting, teaching, protecting, cleaning, planning, and keeping children safe.

During our recent Town Hall Dialogue, caregivers and domestic workers shared what it takes to do this work and what is needed to strengthen the sector, including training and certification, written contracts, fair pay, leave, and greater recognition of childcare as skilled work.

They also highlighted the need for clearer information and support around inspections, licensing, and accessing legal and labour services.

If we want quality childcare, we have to invest in the people who provide it.

01/09/2026

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐬𝐲𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐦 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐦?

We listen to the people doing the work.
We ask difficult questions.
We share experiences.
And we begin to identify pathways for change.

Our Town Hall Dialogue brought caregivers, domestic workers, government, and ecosystem partners together to engage on workers’ rights, violence and harassment, childcare standards, and the recognition of care workers.
The conversation is only the beginning.

31/08/2026

𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐧 𝐄𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐃𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬.

In Kenya, enforced disappearances are not distant or abstract. They are people who do not come home, families left searching for answers, and communities living with fear and uncertainty.

As we mark 20 years since the adoption of the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearances, Kenya must move from concern to action.

We call on the Government of Kenya to ratify and domesticate the Convention, investigate enforced disappearances independently and impartially, hold perpetrators accountable, and ensure victims and their families have access to truth, justice, and reparations.

No one should disappear for exercising their rights. No family should be left without answers.

28/08/2026

“Survivors should not have to choose between healing and advocacy.” - Brandy Kemunto, COVAW.

Ahead of the Justice for Girls Convening & Festival in Kenya, our own Brandy Kemunto, Communications and Advocacy Professional at COVAW, was featured reflecting on what drew her to the movement to end FGM/C and child marriage.

Read the full piece: https://justiceforgirls2026.org/turning-passion-into-progress-a-spotlight-on-brandy-kemunto/

Brandy shares how years spent reporting on femicide showed her that behind every headline is a real family living with the consequences, and how that pushed her from documenting the crisis to working to end it. She speaks to survivor leadership, grassroots investment, and what it will take to build a movement in which survivors shape the solutions.

We’re delighted to see Brandy’s voice contributing to this important global conversation, and even more excited for the conversations, connections, and action the Justice for Girls Convening will bring.
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Girls Not BridesThe US End FGM/C Network

The Justice for Girls Convening & Festival will take place in Kenya soon, bringing together activists, survivors, policymakers and governments, funders, and leaders committed to ending female ge***al mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) and child marriage in this generation. It is a space for bold ideas, shar...