Saleema Initiative
The Saleema initiative supports the protection of girls from female genital mutilation, a harmful practice!
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The Saleema initiative is all about girls and the women they will become.
The Saleema initiative, launched in 2008 by the National Council of Child Welfare (NCCW) and UNICEF Sudan, supports the protection of girls from genital cutting, particularly in the context of efforts to promote collective abandonment of the practice at community level.
Saleema is a word that means whole, healthy in body and mind, unharmed, intact, pristine, and untouched, in a God-given condition.
The broad objective of Saleema is to change the way that people talk about female genital cutting by promoting, at the community level, wide usage of new positive terminology to describe the natural bodies of girls and women.
Since the Saleema Initiative began in 2009, the ideal of keeping girls saleema has spread throughout Sudan, and also created interest in neighbouring countries such as Somalia and Egypt.
The Saleema model of positive communication is Sudan’s gift to building the best future for girls and women everywhere.
I am Saleema
Because I am strong in my decisions!
Because I am not afraid of change!
Because what we are learning now is more than what we knew before!
Because our whole society is changing for the better!
UNICEF launches Saleema caravan to rally communities against FGM
On 6 February, International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, UNICEF and partners launched the 'Saleema caravan' at Al-Fayha Basic School for Girls located in Haj Yousif neighborhood, Eastern Nile locality, Khartoum state.
The caravan, led by a team of Saleema champions will traverse select localities in Kassala, North Kordofan and Northern states. Across the three states, the Saleema champions will interact with communities through various activities including awareness-raising sessions, in and out of school youth dialogues, theatrical performances via the interactive theatre groups. They will also encourage young people to join the Saleema Initiative, while sharing critical messages on benefits of keeping girls Saleema.