this is steve harvey news africa coming up in the next fifteen minutes it's international day off zero tolerance for female genital mutilation we'll hear from the young african women championing the fight against the practices in their communities. and we'll introduce you to the twelve year old boy that has community and. president emmanuel crowd is also a huge fan and. i'm christine when the while come to the news africa i'm glad you're tuned in the united nations has dedicated today to raising awareness about female genital mutilation if g.m.

as it's also known is the partial or total removal of the female external genitalia or the injury to the female genital organs or medical reasons if g.m. is known to be practiced in about thirty countries in africa but it is on the decline and young women are at the forefront of challenging conine activists. will never forget the day it happened to her. when i do think about the day my parents took me and gave me to those women who had tools that i have never seen before so that they could do this to. prove that. well to be honest i was mostly and with my parents because they have betrayed me they didn't really tell me where i was going in war even though will by d.n.a. look they just told me i had to go on holiday and then i was faced with this when i got there. she says i'm traumatized when anyone

talks to me about female circumcision i feel i can't breathe it eats away at me here if you set some rules so a lot of it officially after and has been banned in guinea since the year two thousand but the statistic tell another story ninety seven percent of women in the country have been cut that means that after somalia gimmes the african country where this practice is most common but there is resistance one thousand year old had just founded the group young girls leaders passed in two thousand and sixteen with seven friends the club now has more than two hundred members across many to fight for the rights of women and girls and against after and in all its forms. and it will do that yes it is good it's important to remember that in some canadian communities it don't carry out excision but in fifty lation who got this so the lab

you are together so that they can be ripped open on the wedding night them up it will do a year's dishy it caught us scars which lead to infections which has all sorts of consequences disick at least that is if we get too many to name one cause it is a fix you can even lead to death only about two thirty may. last this it would be a good. girls still being caught doing initiation rituals in the forest without anaesthetic naturally the girls put up a fight so several women restrained them and pushed them to the ground it's not uncommon for the girls to end up with broken bones. and her fellow campaigners are often on the road in guinea to raise awareness of the use films to spread their message on issues such as sex education their goal is to help women and girls to emancipate themselves and to know their rights that's vital in a country where every other girl is married off before her eighteenth birthday

sixty three percent of marriages are arranged and eighty five percent of women report experiences of domestic violence. all these why. we're reaching out to class back at the grassroots level and he's also what are easy we hope that educated professional goals won't fall victim to g.m. or get forced into marriage who expect to see positive results on this team couldn't resist doesn't oppose it if. cultures can change and her fellow campaigners assure that they are fighting for new guinea and which has no place for violence against women and girls ok jad is africa's regional goodwill ambassador for the united nations women and she's also the founder of safe hands for girls and she joins me now from the gambia jabs i guess so much for for talking to us today you

have personally experienced female genital mutilation could you just talk to us about your experiences now and how it's impacted your life. i remember going g m p q that you knew already i went through you know goto mutilation when i was one so i don't remember what that was like to go through down cover but i will until this fact is as an adult and. i mean just speaking in general terms when it comes to carry. on a woman's body from physical consequences to psychological effects and this is something bad once you group through it is something that you have to live with for the rest of your life yet it's certainly something that you're having to live with for the rest of your life but a lot of women in countries where if chamas practiced are in support they've they

are in favor of the practice right so it's been done to their men and they wanted to be done to their daughters and in fact some research tells us that in africa more women than men support the practice and i just wanted to get a sense of through your activism what are some of the reasons why this tradition is just it's so difficult to to get rid off. well in a lot of places the fact is as you know in the in actually half of cyclists and women have been conditioned to believe that this is the good for them and it's something that they have to do through a lot of rules in order for them to be manageable and if their gotos don't fall through x. g.m. no one would manage them and then we'll see them as on clean so i was a result of that it's women who are fastest i've seen them on the other woman what that doesn't lessen the scene it doesn't make it any longer is just by when we see

women in domestic violence solutions and they keep asking the right and she just needs and i you know just because something for us as a nuke it's easy for you to stop and g.m. is a do live traditional practice i have been around for centuries and it is the only thing because you women know so well to change a lot of times we have to be on learn some of the things that we learned along the way and not take science. that's exile job so yes jim was back and in the gambia in two thousand and fifteen and your campaign was really at the front of that right as according to what i've read it was your campaign that that actually for same president jemmett is to ban the practice in the gambit i just wondered how effective has the bend actually been. well we just had a conversation about back to day with food as an international n.g.o.s i mean when

a lot of people felt that lore will a disappearance more in a resort the one has to be appealed a lot but jamey of bad s.t.m. parliaments want to head in the lot which means there's a gambian law or not a president. and i think there's a new administration should do better when it comes to incentives in the more it happens but i think overall as a country we are progressing when it comes to energy have been so much improvement when it comes to not change not because of the law but because of the advocacy and working with communities going on. thank you for your work and great talking to you just had to korea africa's recent goodwill ambassador for un women as and at and t. if she ever acts of assist. the next story is one of those you won't believe without seeing a young boy with an incredible drawing talent has shot to fame in nigeria and even has a fan in france's president emmanuel mccracken after he drew

a portrait of him that data obvious choice sure pay the young artist a visit. every detail matters why risk aim is to make this join look like a high definition photograph at just twelve years of age kerry is the youngest realism artist in nigeria. destroying are usually inspired by his environment and his family sure grew to survive he says the moment he saw this image he knew he wanted to use it. was close to a. close. and. what's.

seizure is the name of kareem's latest joining he started drawing comics when he was just three years old he needs are joining the i you're with the academy an art school that started as a makeshift learning center for children in this poor lagos neighborhood tutors helped him to improve his style and within weeks after posting his first joint online he same spread all over the intel it especially after you drew a portrait of french president manuel last year this is the world that we haven't really done in europe this is. i think this is the beginning of a blow so one thousand. after his big break with president corn the karriem family was invited to move to a new apartment while y. reese was transferred to a better school as a gift from the government according to an official statement the government's

intention is to make sure the boy isn't the best environment to not show his talents meanwhile the at academy where why reece got his start now has a far more studio that's more conducive for young students to learn arts. because i didn't notice. the roots of fruits will still. be. in unison. you know in the. north korea. why resteal comes to be educating me every weekend and when he's not showing he's learning new techniques from textbooks he says arts has always been a way for him to escape hard times. good.

just. when. i just. say why reece is now well known locally but he wants to keep improving until he becomes a global star. and we've no doubt he will be that's it for now from africa you can catch all our stories on our website and facebook page so we're leaving you with images off workers at the salt flats in ethiopia the salt harvested here was deposited by flooding from the red sea get this at least thirty thousand years ago next time i.

am. going to. be put to the. test and if you would have these orders to say. by different country to go to the food energy how should be should be allowed to return to china's own. individual. or neutrinos the music you must be given to the ocean.