In May 1994, former Surgeon General, Dr. Joycelyn Elders advocated teaching teenagers about masturbation as an alternative to sexual intercourse that may result in unwanted pregnancy. Dr. Elders was fired by the Clinton administration for voicing this innovative idea but, ever since, May has been referred to as “Masturbation Month”.

San Francisco, CA - November 8, 2022 . Clitoraid—a US-based, humanitarian organization— is launching its 3rd clitoral restorative surgical mission in Nairobi, Kenya, Nov 14-19, 2022 to help victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) regain their sense of dignity and sexual pleasure—thanks to a technique developed by a French urologist.

“According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 25% of the Kenyan female population has had to endure the horrific tradition of genital cutting. And today, the practice is illegal in Kenya,” explained Nadine Gary, Clitoraid's Director of Operations.

The WHO estimates that 125 million women worldwide have had their genitals forcibly mutilated as babies or toddlers and possibly teenagers. This practice is a gross violation of the UNICEF Convention on the Right of the Child.

Clitoraid volunteer and head-surgeon, Dr. Marci Bowers of San Francisco, USA, will co-lead the clitoral restorative medical procedure in partnership with Kenya-based Dr. Adan Abdullahi at the Platinum Clinic in Nairobi.

“They will be assisted by local Kenyan doctors as well as two MD’s from the US, Dr. Jasmine Pedroso and Dr. Ben Hu, and Dr. Angela Deane of Canada. Both Dr. Hu and Deane are returning for a second time,” explained Gary, who went on to say, "the mission will also be an educational opportunity for a group of post-grad residency medical students from the University of Nairobi Medical School who have been invited to witness the actual surgical procedure."

Sixty FGM survivors, including women from Tanzania and Nigeria, are scheduled for surgery during the one-week, humanitarian endeavor that will take place at Dr. Abdullahi’s clinic in Nairobi,” informed Gary.

Since 2009, Clitoraid has provided clitoral restorative surgery (CRS) to over 550 genitally-mutilated women (mostly in the US) at the clinic of Dr Marci Bowers in San Francisco," said Gary. "Very few people realize that more than half a million FGM victims currently reside in the US as a result of immigration. We have also previously operated in Burkina Faso, West Africa, where our hospital dedicated to FGM victims still awaits its Grand Opening,” explained Gary."

The creation of Clitoraid was inspired by International spiritual leader, Raël, a relentless defender of human rights and women’s rights. The innate right to sexual health and fulfillment has been a core value of the Raelian philosophy for nearly half a century and is now advocated by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a basic human right.

“Society must rid itself of sexual shame and guilt disseminated by archaic patriarchal religions both tribal and mainstream that are especially abusive and demeaning to women,” stated Gary. “Repressing their sexuality has been a powerful ploy to control and subdue them for centuries.”

“Today, thanks to access to education, women are realizing that traditions and cultures that violate their sexual integrity and their sexual freedom also violate their dignity as women,” Gary concluded.

LAS VEGAS, March 3, 2022 - The U.S. based NGO, Clitoraid is launching its 2022 ‘Adopt a Clitoris’ fundraising campaign that will sponsor the clitoral restorative surgery (CRS) of FGM survivors during its 3rd Humanitarian Mission in Kenya, from November 14 to November 19, 2022.

"We call on the public to 'Adopt A clitoris', that is, to sponsor the 150 FGM Kenyan patients who will be scheduled for surgery during our upcoming mission this fall." explains Nadine Gary, Clitoraid International Director of Operations.

"Any donated amount will make a difference!" says Gary, "These women are desperate to turn the page on the unspeakable trauma they’ve endured in their childhood and to finally recover their clitoris, this precious organ, solely dedicated to their sexual pleasure."

“The 'female circumcision' ritual, of unimaginable violence, consists in forcefully slicing off a portion of a child’s clitoris and sometimes her labia, without anesthesia”, Gary bemoans, “by denying women of their sexual pleasure, the hope is to turn them into chaste, subdued and faithful wives.”

“And the Covid pandemic has made things worse!” Gary says.

It has been reported that the Covid related stringent measures have produced an increase in Sub-Saharan FGM cases.

“The reason is economical”, explains the spokeswoman, “circumcisers were striving to make ends meet while little girls were locked down in their homes and accessible.”

The Covid pandemic has also caused medical supplies to triple in cost in Kenya and today, the price of a CRS procedure is estimated at $600.

“That’s in spite of doctors such as Dr. Marci Bowers, Clitoraid's head surgeon and Dr. Adan Abdulahi, the host of the mission in Nairobi, and others, volunteering their services” adds Gary.

Clitoraid’s 'Adopt a clitoris' campaign unequivocally raises the issue of women's sexual pleasure as an inherent human right, a stance supported by both the United Nations and Rael Maitreya, the international spiritual leader whose humanitarian vision sparked the creation of Clitoraid in 2006.

Beyond Kenya, ‘Adopt a clitoris’ is a global call to denounce and erase centuries of shame and guilt around women’s sexual pleasure perpetrated by patriarchal Abrahamic religions for too long”, concluded Gary.