Date: Friday, May 15 2026
Time: 9:30 AM to 10:30 AM
Stories That Sustain Us: Collective Care and Ending FGM/C
Survival is not something done alone. For women and girls impacted by gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C), survival is sustained through community, collective care, and the courage to speak truth together.
This 90-minute panel will bring together alumni from Sahiyo’s Voices to End FGM/C digital storytelling project to explore how storytelling becomes a practice of collective survival. Rooted in participatory, trauma-informed methods, Voices supports survivors in crafting short digital stories that reclaim narrative power, disrupt stigma, and strengthen community response to violence.
Through moderated dialogue and the screening of short digital stories, panelists will reflect on:
- How storytelling shifts isolation into solidarity
- What it means to survive in community rather than alone
- How narrative power challenges silence, shame, and harmful cultural norms
- The role of collective care in healing
This session centers women of color not as subjects of policy, but as knowledge producers, movement leaders and experts, and architects of survival. Panelists will share how participating in the storytelling process reshaped their understanding of healing, advocacy, and community responsibility.
Participants will engage in guided reflection and dialogue about how storytelling can be integrated into organizing, advocacy, and community spaces to strengthen collective survival strategies