1. Personal Statement
Clitoraid, founded in 2004 by international spiritual leader Rael (rael.org), is
dedicated to surgically repairing the clitoris and other genital areas of women suffering
from Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). I have provided for the non-profit organization,
Clitoraid, with well over 200 hours of volunteer work during the last two years. I assisted
in collecting contact information among Gynecologists in Florida to promote awareness
of Clitoraid’s humanitarian clitoral surgical repair treatment for victims of Female
Genital Mutilation (FGM) both in the US and in Sub-Sahara Africa where most genitally
maimed little girls and women are found. I have also helped in the fundraising process of
their charity by baking chocolates and cookies to be sold at different FGM awareness
venues. Furthermore, I was present at Miami’s Clitoraid fundraising event 'stop the
violence against women – donate to restore a clitoris' campaign as we celebrated the
United Nations International day to end the violence against women, November 25, 2011.
We are currently seeking $100,000, amount necessary to finish building a hospital
for FGM patients in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Thousands of female victims there are
desperately awaiting the operation to recover a sense of pleasure and their dignity as
women. Genital mutilation is a cultural ritual that dates back to the time of the Pharaohs.
It is especially prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa and is usually performed on little girls
from age 5 up. These victims are held down by force while the circumciser cuts off the
clitoris with the help of a knife, razor blade or even a piece of broken glass. This hideous
act is typically done without anesthesia and with few sanitary precautions. Infection is
common and is sometimes fatal. Those who survive suffer unbearable pain for months or
longer. They are scarred for life.

2. The purpose of this dreadful FGM ritual, also called “excision,” is to ensure that
women will be sexually faithful to their husbands by denying them physical pleasure. The
United Nations and the World Health Organization both condemn the practice, and it has
now been outlawed in 28 African countries. Though FGM still goes on secretly in many
places, its prevalence has diminished somewhat in the past 10 years thanks to relentless
campaigns, and educational programs conducted by Clitoraid and other organizations in
local African communities. Some 150 million women living today have been genitally
mutilated through FGM. With that in mind, we at Clitoraid not only campaign against the
custom but wish to offer repair surgery (using a technique developed by Dr. Pierre Foldes
in France) to the millions of sexually maimed women who often live with pain as well as
shame. Please refer to our website to read Clitoraid’s history and a description of the
surgical breakthrough that makes surgical repair possible for FGM victims. You will be
able to find out about our volunteer staff of surgeons, psychologists and sex therapists
and also includes information about our new hospital, including many photos. You will
also be able to read deeply touching patient testimonies from women awaiting the surgery
in Burkina Faso and others who have already had the operation and now enjoy its life-
changing, healing effects – physically, emotionally and psychologically. Clitoraid’s
humanitarian project is urgent, since the restorative surgery also serves as a powerful
deterrent against the practice of FGM. (Why mutilate something that can later be
repaired?) As you can see, the opening of our much-needed hospital in FGM-prevalent
Africa is of top medical priority. And we note that it will be the first of its kind
worldwide.