Female Gential Mutilation and other forms of Gender Based Violence (GBV) ends when local level activists, influencers, medics, religious leaders and journalists take to the airwaves calling for the practice to stop. The GMC backroom team below supports grassroots activists with media training, both in-country and online, with our specially developed media masterclasses.
We train activists to run powerful anti-FGM campaigns where powerful influencers such as religious leaders and doctors speak out on the media, condemning the practice. We also give small grants – every two months – to allow these activists to run their own campaigns, buying the airtime needed to get the influencers on air.
The Triple-A Activists
The ‘Triple A’ Activists:
Triple A activists are GMC graduates and seasoned End FGM campaigners coordinating activities within their countries.
Kenya: Peter Kemei
Nigeria: Ayo Bello
Sierra Leone: Lucy Anne Ganda
The Gambia: Mam Lisa Camara
Somalia: Ifrah Ahmed
Ethiopia: Hassan Istillah
Mali: Oumou Toure
Guinea: Dr. Morissanda Kouyate
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Sadia Isaack – Consultant on Impact Studies
Our background team
Maggie O’Kane – Executive Director
Maggie is a co-founder of GMC and a #FrontlineEndingFGM co-founder, former foreign correspondent with The Guardian, TV and Emmy, award-winning film producer.
Fatou Binetou Diop – Joint Program Director
Fatou is a senior private sector specialist with a joint MBA from Sorbonne and Paris Dauphine Universities in France & more than 20 years’ experience. She collaborated with the public sector as the spokesperson of MultiChoice. In addition, her experience at the World Bank Group since 2016 and at GMC since May 2023, reinforced her inter-community engagement as she is passionate about gender issues and more specifically FGM and any harmful practices against Women & Children.
She worked in various areas such as Health, Media, Education, Fuels and Lubricants, for some of the largest companies in their respective fields: MultiChoice Africa/ Naspers group; ISM/ HEC Paris, ExxonMobil, Shell…
She has also intensively managed Sales Level agreement with partners abroad (Canal France -Pay TV), set up business monitoring procedures, managed and coach multicultural staff, be the spokesperson to the public officials and members of government, the authorities of regulation of audiovisual, and the media in general in West, Central and Eastern Africa Region.
She coordinated the organization of the very prestigious MCA/ CNN Journalist Award that recognized the best journalism in Africa during 9 years.
She built strong Marketing, Communication, Sales, and Distribution Strategy to launch and develop new products/services as well as brand awareness and reputation.
She is fluent in French, English and a decent level in Spanish. Basic knowledge in Portuguese and Arabic.
Alice Roques – Joint Program Director
Alice is GMC’s Joint Programme Director, working with frontline campaigners across francophone West and Central Africa. She studied Gender and International Relations at LSE, until she understood that would not be enough to dismantle the patriarchy and GMC seemed like an excellent place to start. Since she joined the team four years ago, Alice has worked on launching the campaign in Guinea and Guinea-Bissau, bringing in new funders and measuring the activities’ impact in Mali.
Jeremiah Kipainoi – Director of Communications
Kipainoi is a media specialist and award-winning multimedia journalist. He is also the creator and designer of GMC’s website, Masterclasses and Media Hub.
Kenneth Mohammed – Director of Finance
Kenneth is a fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants, started his career at KPMG and has worked for numerous multinationals including Microsoft as the CFO for the Caribbean, Coca-Cola as the CEO of Jamaica, and the National Petroleum Co. of Trinidad and Tobago as the CEO. Writes for the Guardian UK, Global Development Department on Caribbean and African issues. Doctoral Candidate at the Centre for Corruption Studies at the University of Sussex. Also holds an MBA and MA in Corruption and Governance from the University of Sussex.
Dee Lukic – Finance Manager
Dee is one of the founding members of GMC and has a background in media production, working as a Production Manager on documentary films. She manages grant funds and projects overall countries for GMC.
Alessandro Kalaiya – Director of Fundraising
Alessandro brings a wealth of expertise in finance and dedication to social impact to our team. With a background in finance and a proven track record in donor relations and proposal formation, Alessandro has spent the past year making significant contributions to The Global Media Campaign.
Lea Blanc – Program manager
Lea is a program manager at GMC fluent in French and English, she Studied anthropology at Goldsmiths University and has hospitality management experience. She is involved in coordinating the campaign funded by the European Union in Guinea Bissau.
Caz Stuart – Filmmaker
For 25 years, Caz was a Producer/Director making award-winning documentaries for all the major UK & US primetime broadcasters. She now creates and produces all of GMC’s film content.
Trustees and officers
Helen Mahy CBE (Chair)
Former Company Secretary and General Counsel of National Grid plc. Helen is a non executive director of SSE plc and Gowling WLG (UK) LLP and will be chair from Summer 2023 of NextEnergy Solar Fund. She was also an Equality and Human Rights Commissioner.
Alan Rusbridger
Former Editor-in-Chief of the Guardian and Chair of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, Alan now sits on Facebook’s global regulatory board. He is Principal of Lady Margaret Hall at Oxford University and also chairs the Reuters Institute there.
Musikilu Mojeed
Musikilu is one of Nigeria’s most famous journalists as Editor-in-Chief at Nigeria’s Premium Times newspaper, which he co-founded. He is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and won several awards, including a team Pulitzer for his team’s reporting on the Panama Papers.
Julia Cook
Change Management Group
Julia is a management consultant with over 20 years of experience supporting charities. She has built the internationally renowned charity, Consortium For Streetchildren as her global consumer consulting firm.
Jeremy Cox
Jeremy is a Chartered Accountant qualifying with Brebners who specialise in media and entertainment.
Virginia Henley
Virginia is a lawyer and heads the Charities and Social Enterprise Team at Hewitsons LLP. At GMC, she oversees risk management, effective safeguarding and compliant practices and procedures. She is also an interim manager at the Charity Commission
Martin Doyle
Headmaster and Governor of Riverside School, Haringey, London
Martin has been involved in work for charities for many years: as chair of ‘Out and About’, a school-based charity funding residential trips for low-income families
Nicola Rabson
Nicola is an Employment Lawyer and Partner at Linklaters. She has a particular expertise and interest in diversity and inclusion, whistleblowing and workplace culture. Nicola is a CEDR accredited mediator.
Advisory Board
Ayo Bello
Ayo Bello is an End FGM campaigner in Nigeria and founder of Ladies Circle, a feminists women’s rights organisation working on FGM. She ensures that the voices of the grassroots and triple-A activists are central at the Global Media Campaign board table.
Stephen Dawson
Philanthropist and Social Entrepreneur
Stephen is a former venture capitalist who holds an OBE for his services to philanthropy and is one of the Global Media Campaign’s private funders.
Hilary Burrage
Hilary Burrage is a sociologist who has spent more than two decades investigating and seeking ways to make FGM history. She is author of the definitive textbook Eradicating Female Genital Mutilation: A UK Perspective (Routledge, 2015) and of Female Mutilation (New Holland, 2016) – both of these books offering a global overview of FGM – as well as many other papers, book chapters and reports (see www.hilaryburrage.com ). She is Adjunct Professor, Buehler Center for Health Policy and Economics, Feinberg School of Medicine Northwestern University, Chicago (but normally resident in London), a Member of the Institute of Health Promotion and Education, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Global Woman P.E.A.C.E.Foundation #EndFGM Awardee 2016. Hilary was proud to be part of the team led by Maggie O’Kane from which the Global Media Campaign to EndFGM arose.
