When she flew into Nairobi airport, Marci Bowers’ huge suitcase was crammed with sutures and medical instruments, everything she could fit inside.

The doctor from San Francisco was bound for a hospital in one of the Kenyan capital’s slums and needed the equipment for the work ahead: repairing women’s bodies, undoing the work of genital cutters who drag young girls from their homes to fulfill an ancient coming-of-age ritual.

It was the first time the operation to address female genital mutilation has been performed in Kenya, where some 5 million women from many ethnic groups are victims.

For years, African women scarred by female genital mutilation had no hope. A California doctor is changing that – LA Times