01/2026 Funding Project for educational work on female genital mutilation in Africa

Our foundation has repeatedly supported the Desert Flower Center at Waldfriede Hospital in Berlin in its educational and treatment work for young girls and women who have undergone female genital mutilation (FGM).

For example, we were able to partially cover the costs of surgery and subsequent psychological support for a young Somali woman.

We also supported Evelyn Brendas FGM prevention work on another occasion.

The Waldfriede Hospital in Berlin is an academic teaching hospital of the Charité University Medicine Berlin and a European training center for surgical techniques in coloproctology, essentially a specialist clinic for the medical treatment of, among other things, abdominal diseases and pelvic floor surgery, and is also often involved locally in some African countries with genitally mutilated girls and young women. Bernd Quoß, board member of the hospital and chairman of the Desert Flower Center support association, Waldfriede e.V., recently told us in response to our renewed inquiry that since January 2025 there has been a self-help group to which every affected woman/girl is invited, regardless of their origin or whether and how they are affected by FGM.

There, a team led by senior physician Dr. Cornelia Strunz, along with Evelyn Brenda, cares for the participants. Every woman/girl is warmly invited and welcome to the monthly meetings, where they receive support and advice, including surgical treatments. Ritual circumcision, often performed on young girls during childhood with razor blades, frequently results in the girls bleeding to death, or the mutilation often causes severe physical and psychological damage.

In 2026, we will continue to support the work of the self-help groups of the DFC and Dr. Cornelia Strunz and Evelyn Brenda with a cooperation grant.