ActionAid Liberia, DOMAFEIGN Launch Gbarpolu’s First Traditional Arts School to Replace FGM

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ADNews- Gbarpolu, Liberia: ActionAid Liberia in partnership with DOMAFEIGN, has launched the first Traditional Art School in Gbama District, Gbarpolu County. The school replaces the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM or FGC) under the Just and Equal Community Project (JEC).

The Traditional Art School now serves as an empowerment center, designed and established by Domafeign, one of the four local implementing partners of the JEC project. The school is intended to train women and young girls in various traditional and livelihood skills, including tailoring, country cloth weaving, traditional dances, and instilling strong moral and positive society values.

The center will also serve as an epic center for skills training and for passing on valuable traditional morals to young women and girls without carrying them through any form of FGM.

Established by Domafeign with the JEC, Jartu B. Johnson, now a Change Champion, who has long transitioned from FGM practice to now productive and sustainable livelihoods, as the traditional art school now serves as an empowerment hub for all girls and women to gain meaningful skills.

The launching ceremony took place on January 24, 2026, in Parker Town, Gbama District, Gbarpolu County as part of pre-activities leading to this year’s Zero Tolerance for FGM.

The launch of Gbarpolu Traditional Art School is the first of its kind in the area. The event brought together hundreds of rural residents, traditional leaders, the county legislative caucus, civil society organizations, FGM survivors, former practitioners, girls and women who are currently benefiting from the center.

The school comes after years of ActionAid Liberia and partner work in Gbarpolu County with FGM Practitioners who have transitioned from harmful traditional practitioners to more productive and sustainable livelihood activities, while also leading efforts and advocacy for girls’ and women’s health rights and protection across Gbarpolu County.

 

Jartu B. Johnson, a former FGM practitioner who is leading the change in Gbarma, now a Change Champion working hand-in-hand with DOMAFEIGN is the brain behind the Art School in her community.

Speaking at the launching program, Johnson in a very firm tone called for county-level support to enhance the Art school. She acknowledged the role ActionAid, Domafeign, and SIDA have played in the transformation girls and women of Gbarma are now experiencing, but stressed that the donor and NGO community cannot do everything.

She called on the local county authority to join in partnership to sustain the gains made and equip the facility

She told lawmakers of the county that her goal  is  to replicate the art school to other communities across the  County

“I am not begging you, I am demanding your to advocate for this center to get support, so we can train the girls and women of Gbarma since we have laid down arms (abandoned FGM Practices.” Jartu told Senator Botoe Kanneh and Gbarpolu County district 3 representative Hon. Mustapha Wority.

Senator Kanneh, in her response to the Change Champion, commended ActionAid Liberia and partners and pledged her fullest support to the Champion. Johnson noted that the fact that such a change has started from Gbarma, particularly Gbarpolu. She prayed that such initiative be extended to other counties and communities beyond Parker Town, in Gbarpolu County.

“I am glad it’s starting in a traditional area.” Senator Botoe said at the commencement of her remarks.

The Senator  then continued by committing  support to a more sustainable art center, “This traditional area will be one to expand in the other areas,  we are there encouraging  you people, she noted. But then added “For us, we are at the back, but whatsoever you say, that’s what we will do.” Hon. Kanneh told traditionalists and audience at the even in response to Jartu Johnson’s call for support to the center.

Senator Kanneh began her support to the school by presenting an initial contribution LD $40,000 (forty thousand Liberian dollars. She was followed by the district representative Hon. Mustapha Wority who presented LD $30,000 and pledged 25 bags of cement. Support also came from ActionAid Country director, Elizabeth Gbah Johnson who committed one sewing machine.

Other commitment came from Aisha Kamara and Chris Weyon, who both pledged one sewing machine to the school.

Speaking at the launch, ActionAid Liberia’s Country Director, Elizabeth Gbah Johnson, praised change champion Jartu for her foresight, determination, and commitment to improving the lives of girls and women through her transition.

Madam Johnson highlighted that the idea to establish the art school came directly from beneficiaries of the Jartu Empowerment Center (JEC), describing this as a true example of sustainability. She emphasized that meaningful change is most effective when driven by the women themselves.

“This is exactly what we are talking about, and this is why we are so happy with what we are seeing you doing,” she told attendees.

She added that sustainability goes beyond the presence of ActionAid, noting that the initiative reflects years of engagement and collaboration with women in Gbarpolu County, particularly in Gbarma District. “This is not about ActionAid, it is about the women who made the decision and are leading what is happening here,” she said.

Madam Johnson concluded by calling for collective action to preserve Liberia’s positive cultural values while reforming practices that harm the lives of girls and women.

Since 2019 ActionAid Liberia has been implementing the Just and Equal Community (JEC) project across  Bong, Gborpolu, Grand Gedeh, and Montserrado Counties with funding from the Embassy of Sweden in Liberia. Beneficiaries of the JEC project include survivors of FGM, former practitioners, women-led community-based organizations, young boys and girls, marginalized communities, traditional leaders, and civil society stakeholders, among others.

From the inception of the JEC project, at least over 38,886 women and young people have been empowered to claim and defend their Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) rights, including strengthening community accountability mechanisms for quality and gender-responsive SRHR service delivery.

The project has also worked with over 300 former FGM practitioners, transition out of practice and now have other sustainable livelihoods, most of whom have now become agents of change, leading advocacy and protecting girls and women.

JEC contributes to SIDA’s Development Cooperation with Liberia 2021–2025 strategy objective that focuses on “Human rights, democracy, the rule of law and gender equality” with the aim to achieve greater gender equality, including reduced gender-based violence, and access to, and respect for, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR).

One key priority of the JEC has been working towards breaking biased power relations and provoking people’s reflections and agency, particularly women, young people, and other marginalized groups, to drive systematic public action to make the government accountable, responsive, and deliver on critically needed SRHR and other public services and its commitments and policies.