The BRAVE Project has made significant progress in empowering women and girls, promoting the abandonment of harmful practices, and fostering inclusive community engagement. With 385 direct beneficiaries reached to date, 264 women (68.5%) and 121 men (31.5%), the project exemplifies a gender-focused, community-driven approach.  The project successfully empowered youth through Girls Club training sessions and provided enhanced support for Girls Champions and FGM survivors. We strengthened women and girls' support networks and established women and girls-friendly spaces to create safe environments for engagement. Through community conversations, we promoted awareness and support for issues affecting women and girls. Additionally, we conducted support and awareness sessions, engaged traditional and religious leaders through conversation forums.

We trained gender-based violence service providers, educated circumcisers, traditional birth attendants, and other women's groups, and strengthened law enforcement by providing targeted training for police, judges, lawyers, and prosecutors. Our efforts also included empowering religious and traditional leaders and advancing FGM/C advocacy among health extension workers, development agents, and community influencers. We organized consultative workshops focused on the abandonment of FGM/C, coordinated multi-task woreda level monthly meetings, and successfully launched the BRAVE projects. Furthermore, we developed clear project objectives and problem trees, validated our strategies through workshops, and conducted extensive community focus group discussions to ensure active participation and valuable insights.