Last Mile4D

If selected a winner, Last Mile4D would use prize funds to scale up from earlier successes in eliminating Female Genital Mutilation using innovative technology and community organizing. In 2019, Last Mile4D developed and piloted a powerful advocacy and prevention program to eliminate Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) for 1,000 girls in 10 western Kenya schools. Field workers were trained to use VPack technology, a proprietary online platform that includes 1-mobile solar-powered backpack, 2-laptop and 3-software.  The pilot project included: (1) education strategies to mobilize and encourage girls and their communities to reduce FGM, (2) software to collect routine and periodic, real-time survey data that monitors schoolgirls at risk of FGM, and (3) strategies (e.g., a hotline, law enforcement contacts, housing) that serve as barriers and build girls’ awareness, who face imminent cutting. VPack enhanced our capacity to collect data that saved 1,000 girls. With Elevate Prize (EP) funding we can replicate our data collection procedures and advocacy strategies for in-time intervention in additional Kenyan communities[1].  It will allow us to increase and enhance our organizational capacity and partnerships to save more girls from FGM, affecting their educational, health, and economic well-being so they can reach their full capacity.

[1] https://www.icrw.org/publications/technology-and-community-empowered-programming-to-eliminate-fgm/

Last Mile4D is a woman-led Washington based non-profit, founded in 2014. We design and implement training programs to inform and change the attitudes of women and girls living in remote and undeserved communities of the world, known as Last Mile communities. The programs help women and girls prosper by informing them about their rights to health, safety and freedom from gender-based violence including FGM. Our vision is to provide women and girls equal access to education and economic opportunities so the girls can realize their full capacity. We utilize an online platform for data collection and analysis to identify solutions, implement changes and track impact. We work with local partners to develop community-centric programs that deliver proven results. FGM is performed on girls of all ages and is the leading cause of school dropout[1]. To eliminate FGM, an undocumented crime, we use evidence-based data collected from the girls to change attitudes and behaviors not just for the families, but also the broader community ecosystem that unwittingly, through inaction, silently consent to FGM. Support for replicating our program will help achieve that goal. 

[1] https://actionaid.org/publications/2013/stop-violence-against-girls-school

Over 200 million women and girls worldwide experience FGM[1]. In western Kenya 30 to 69% of the females experience FGM which results in: short and long term physical and emotional harm, systemic economic inequality, education gaps, and early marriage – all of which perpetuate poverty. Preventing and eradicating FMG is hampered: 1-dearth of evidence-based data, 2-silenced voices of girls, 3-community unwillingness to eliminate FGM, and 4-law enforcement gaps. From June 2019 to January 2021, we piloted a community-centric program in Kenya that used VPack, a mobile-platform empowered by solar technology. VPack offered us the capacity to collect real-time FGM anticipated incidence-data in an African community. We collaborated with local partners, to implement community outreach and a training and advocacy program to eliminate FGM. This program informed girls about the long-term and implications of FGM, encouraged them to exercise their rights to avoid FGM, and advance their skills for economic empowerment.  VPack enhanced our ability to: communicate with and collect real-time data on 1,000 girls in 10 schools, move 140 girls to immediate safety and prevented FGM, establish a peer-to-peer mentoring network of young women, and collaborate with local authorities to enforce and uphold FGM laws.

[1] Retrieved from: https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-protection/female-genital-mutilation/

There is a lack of data and evidence-based strategies for preventing FGM. Prior to our efforts, FGM data was limited to static statistics from WHO or UNICEF. Our VPack platform generated efficient and real-time data, allowing for in-time intervention by our field staff, supported by police and children services. We demonstrated the disruptive strength of merging technology, community-centered programs, constant outreach and monitoring and evaluation to eliminate FGM. Sheltering girls during the season when FGM risk was the highest saved them from the scourge. Mobile solar powered VPack ensured uninterrupted access to data and educational modules for communities where FGM rates were high.  Real-time data on 1,000 girls, showed that 80% of the girls feared that cuttings would occur.  This data was the catalyst to inform the community at stakeholder meetings at the onset of our FGM work in the region. The evidence was compelling, and the community mobilized behind our efforts. VPack demonstrated the effectiveness of our innovation for swift and long-term impact and converting families and tribal leaders to advocate against FGM. The promising results from this FGM program indicate that community engaged FGM programs with real-time monitoring benefited young girls and should be replicated elsewhere.

As stated above, we developed and implemented a year-long community-based program that increased women and girls:  knowledge, access to information, human capacity and agency to exercise their rights to avoid FGM.  As a result of our project in Keya, we collected the first available real-time data that gave us a window to intervene to save girls from FGM. We partnered with Kenyan local partners, ChildsLife and GOSESO Women Network, to conduct community outreach and implement a training and advocacy program targeted to eliminate FGM. This program reduced school dropouts and kept the 1,000 girls safe from FGM and child marriage, and provided advance skills (FGM literacy, health and digital knowledge) for economic empowerment. We used secure solar powered mobile platform to 1) maintain contact with and collect real-time data on 1,000 girls in 10 schools (even during COVID-19 and school closure we visited them at their homes) about FGM risks, (2) move 140 girls during COVID-19 school closures to immediate safety and prevented FGM, (3) create a peer-to-peer mentoring network of young women, and (4) collaborate with local authorities to enforce and uphold FGM laws.