13-year-old Dalma made the difficult and dangerous transition from her village in an African country to Greece, because she wants to live free. Having been submitted to clitoridectomy at the age of 5, she would have been forced to marriage before she would turn 14, if she had stayed at her home country.

“I want to be granted asylum in Greece and go to school”, was the support she asked from the member of METAdrasi’s Guardianship Network for Unaccompanied Minors the first time they met, 17 months ago. Today, Dalma lives in one of METAdrasi’s accommodation facilities and feels privileged that she can go to school and make plans for the future.

Her mother follows her progress from afar. “It was an exceptionally hard decision to encourage my daughter to get away”, she tells us. “I did not have a choice on how to live my life and I am happy that Dalma has this opportunity. I wish her to never stop trying, being creative, being herself…”

International Women’s Day 2019
Even today, each year, 3 million girls are submitted to genital mutilation, 12 million underage girls are forced into marriage and 62 million girls are deprived of school access.