Giving Compass' Take:

• Victoria Macchi reports that ICE agents are approaching people in airports to warn them of the legal and medical consequences of female genital cutting. 

• How can funders address this issue in the United States and around the world? 

• Learn about the need for data on female genital cutting in the United States. 

On a few days over the last year, federal agents approached travelers at several US airports — flights bound for or connecting to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Frankfurt, Germany, and Dakar, Senegal.

The officials — part of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement — weren't searching for contraband, or guiding bag-sniffing dogs. They were part of a smaller office within the agency that doesn't focus on detaining and deporting people. Instead, they were handing out printed materials. They wanted to talk about female genital cutting (FGC).

There are brochures involved and, according to photos attached to the agency's news releases, male and female agents chat with women about to board flights abroad.

FGC is a federal crime, the agency says it tells travelers. It can have consequences on child custody, and in immigration cases, too, even if the procedure is performed outside the U.S.

Mariya Taher, head of Sahiyo — a U.S. nongovernmental organization that advocates for an end to FGC — has spoken publicly about her experience surviving the procedure. Now, her organization is spearheading its own effort to publicize the stories of other survivors in the U.S., with a video project due out this month.

"Any effort about the health, legal consequences, support services, I think is really helpful and beneficial," Taher said. On the other hand, she noted, "I feel conflict. We're trying to show that FGC happens across the board, regardless of ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status. ... I'm a little afraid, if we're just targeting certain countries, that we're unintentionally misrepresenting whom FGC happens to."

Read the full article about preventing female genital cutting by Victoria Macchi at Global Citizen.