Communication and Female Genital Cutting
This issue of The Soul Beat focuses on information from the network about communication related to what has been termed female genital cutting (FGC), female genital mutilation (FGM), female circumcision, and excision. For background information on the topic, please visit the World Health Organization fact sheet OR the FGC Networking and Education Project introductory pages
If you would like to contribute your own communication experiences, please contact Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
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1. Community Participation to Improve Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health - Burkina Faso
Young people conducted participatory workshops in which communities identified priority areas in adolescent reproductive and sexual health including: HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections; contraception; female genital mutilation; parent-child communication; and youth-friendly services. Strategies developed included community mobilisation; information, education, and communication (IEC), video showings with discussions, theatre, dance, and fairs; and peer education. Results indicated improvements in knowledge about HIV and where to obtain contraception and services, increased condom use, better communication between youth and parents, and a decrease in youth intending to excise their future daughters.
Contact Roger Thiombiano mwangaz@fasonet.bf OR Muadi Mukenge
mmukenge@piwh.org
2. Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) - Kenya
A project initiated by the Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) that aims to conduct research and use policy and advocacy to eradicate the practice of FGM. The project seeks to communicate about the dangers of FGM and explore various community-based interventions that are consistent with specific local customs, traditions and laws. The project aims to strengthen the national FGM focal point, as well as undertake activities targeting the population of girls about to enter adulthood in the community of the Gussi region in Kenya. It facilitates the identification, promotion and adoption of alternative rites of passage to replace the practice of FGM in the tradition or culture of the community. The project focuses on communities in specific districts in order to raise awareness of the negative consequences of FGM and thus increase their willingness to stop the practice.
Contact Association of Media Women in Kenya (AMWIK) info@amwik.org
3. End Female Genital Mutilation project - Guinea
The project aims to overcome female genital cutting with sensitive and open dialogue that encourages respect and interest to all views and opinions as a move away from negative and medicalised information campaigns about FGM. Following a research phase, NGOs were requested to organise dialogues held in different communities. Elders and young people of the same sex came together, including two workshops with a field dialogue phase in between. In the workshops, both generations had the opportunity to present their perspectives with regard to a man's or a woman's life path, in the past and in the modern world. The meaning and function of the FGM initiation ritual was explored, as well as the changing needs and challenges for youngsters in the modern world.
Contact Anna von Roenne roenne@epos.de
4. Rusape Girls Empowerment village - Zimbabwe
The Empowerment Village serves as an information dissemination centre as well as a service provision and relief point. Its goal is to give a sense of hope to abused rural girls. Organisers believe that the village's activism can contribute to respect for girls' rights on a broader scale. Using technology, the project hopes to address issues related to: exploitation of rural girls; sexual harassment and abuse of rural girls; poverty leading to exploitation; early pregnancies and marriages; cultural practices such as FGM and virginity testing; and hostile school environments where teachers perpetrate sexual violence. Girls are provided with three months of training on the use of email and the Internet. The village has a computer lab with a photocopier, email access, and Internet access. The girls create brochures and referral materials there.
Contact Betty Makoni gcn@zol.co.zw OR nyamapfene@zol.co.zw
5. Well Women Media Project - Horn of Africa
The Project works with local audiences to develop interactive radio and television programmes that promote "positive" attitudes to women's reproductive and sexual health. Programmes include soap operas and phone-in shows, dealing with issues such as HIV/AIDS, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and birth spacing. The organisers say, while the project's focus is on women's health and well being, it also incorporates issues affecting the whole community.
Contact Elisabeth Michau e.michau@healthunlimited.org
See also
Drama-based Look at Female Genital Mutilation - Nigeria
Projet Video Sabou et Nafa - Guinea
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The FGC Education and Networking Project is looking for volunteers to manage information for the web portal. Possible positions include online researcher as well as a bibliographer/librarian.
Send an e-mail to contactfgm@fgmnetwork.org
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6. An Assessment of the Alternative Rites Approach for Encouraging Abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation in Kenya
By Jane Njeri Chege, Ian Askew and Jennifer Liku
Maendeleo Ya Wanawake (MYWO), with technical assistance from the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), has been implementing an alternative rite of passage programme as part of its efforts to eradicate FGM in five districts in Kenya. This study explores the factors that influence some families and individuals to adopt the alternative rite while others, exposed to the same messages discouraging FGM, decide not to. It also evaluated the effect of the training component of the alternative rite on those girls who participated.
7. Impact Data - TOSTAN Program - Senegal
According to this evaluation, the TOSTAN FGC education programme significantly increased awareness of women and men on human rights, gender-based violence, FGC and reproductive health. Awareness of at least two consequences of FGC significantly increased among both men (from 11 percent to 83%) and women (from 7 percent to 83%) immediately after participating in the programme, and more than half of the women who did not participate could mention at least two of the dangers of FGC after the intervention. Attitudes improved significantly in the experimental group, with women and men denouncing discrimination, violence and FGC. Attitudes towards FGC also improved significantly in the comparison group, but to a lesser extent than in the experimental group. There was a dramatic decrease in the approval of FGC, although a small proportion of women (16%) participating in the programme did not change their attitude. Regret for having cut their daughters increased and fewer women were willing to cut their daughters in the future.
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8. Baseline Survey on Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices About Female Genital Cutting in Eastern Nigeria: Report of Findings
by Stella Babalola and John Amouzou
This document presents findings from a household baseline survey aimed at providing formative information for the design of a programme to encourage the the abandonment of FGM in Enugu State, Nigeria. The findings will also provide data against which the impact of the programme can be measured. The survey was conducted in Enugu and Ebonyi states in July/August 2003 based on a control-experimental design.
9. Ethical Issues in Conducting Interventions Research on Female Genital Cutting
by Nahla Abdel-Tawab
This paper discusses some of the ethical challenges that researchers face in designing interventions against FGC, assessing their impact and in disseminating results of such interventions to policymakers, donors and the research community. The author concludes the paper by suggesting that all proposals for intervention studies against FGC include mechanisms for helping women/girls who have been circumcised; that more culturally appropriate informed consent procedures be developed; and that ethical review committees include individuals who are familiar with the study community.
10. Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting in Somalia
This report finds that FGM eradication activities are mostly short term, small scale, and ad hoc in nature. It recommends that international donors consider longer term funding, and developing a joint strategic framework for FGM eradication. It also finds that despite significant interest and action against FGM among the Somali non-governmental organisations, networks and volunteers, there is limited technical capability in the design, implementation and evaluation of relevant programs. It is recommended that capacity building, study tours and consensus-building meetings be organised. It also mentions that it is a challenge to both advocate for stopping of circumcision and promote condom use for HIV and AIDS prevention, when the two issues play upon the community's underlying fears about alleged uncontrolled sexuality.
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Facing Sustainability Award
The organisers of this photographic award believe that sustainability means protecting the environment while acting in a socially equitable and economically responsible way. The international "Facing Sustainability Award" offers professional photographers and amateurs an opportunity to submit photographs and stories of people who are actively working for sustainable development goals daily all over the world. For further information, please click here.
If you have any questions, please contact: info@facing-sustainability.de
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11. Abandoning Female Genital Cutting: Communicating Information and Better Practices to Policymakers - June 13-24 2005 - Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
The Population Reference Bureau (PRB), in collaboration with Mwangaza Action in Burkina Faso, is running a two-week workshop dedicated to developing participants' policy communication and advocacy skills. This workshop is the second in a series that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has sponsored in the region. The workshop is designed to increase the use of available data and information on better practices for establishing or improving policies and programmes to abandon FGM. All sessions will be conducted in French.
12. Monitoring and Evaluation for Sexual and Reproductive Health programmes - Nov 7-18 2005 - Johannesburg, South Africa
This course is designed to strengthen institutional capacity to effectively monitor programme operations and evaluate performance. The course guides participants through a process of incorporating and/or establishing performance-based monitoring and evaluation mechanisms in your organisation. Learning is facilitated through lectures, case studies, group problem solving and individualised attention. Emphasis is placed on participatory learning so instructors draw on the experiences of participants and their programmes. Participants graduate with a completed monitoring and evaluation plan for their programme.
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13. Stop Excision [CD]
This CD is used by Project Stop Excision to educate and raise awareness of the consequences of FGM and the movement underway to stop it. It contains songs by Malian artists protesting against FGM and for women's rights. The organisers maintain that the artists who sing on the album are very well known in Mali and that the songs are heard on radio in Mali. The CD contains eight songs protesting against FGM, written in five languages: Bambara, Senoufo, Pulaar, Dogon and Sarakole.
14. Season of Planting Girls
As FGM is forbidden by law in Egypt, it is banned in public and private hospitals and clinics. The government has an active policy discouraging it. But, according to official statistics, an estimated 96% of women in Egypt still undergo FGM. Together with the Egyptian authorities, organisations such as UNICEF, the Ford Foundation, UNDP and others are active in researching and lobbying against FGM. In co-operation with these organisations, MediaHouse has produced a video to discourage parents from having their daughters cut.
15. Abandoning Female Genital Cutting: Prevalence, Attitudes, and Efforts to End the Practice
This report presents an overview and recent statistics about the practice of FGC, a summary of approaches to abandon it, and a brief discussion of projects in four countries (Egypt, Kenya, Senegal, and Uganda) identified as promising by the World Heath Organization and the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH). The report offers guidance to policymakers and programme managers involved in implementing FGC abandonment policies and activities.
16. Female Genital Cutting: Breaking the Silence, Enabling Change
by Julia M. Masterson and Julie Hanson Swanson
This publication examines the occurrence of FGC and common rationales for its practice. Historical efforts to eliminate the practice are explored within the context of an emerging human rights framework, and a synopsis of three concrete strategies and their results. In Egypt, a Positive Defiance Approach (PDA) identifies positive role models who had not had their daughters cut or who advocate against the practice. In The Gambia, an alternative rite of passage curriculum was designed for the girl initiation ceremonies, of great traditional importance. Tostan, in Senegal, designed and conducted education classes for over 900 women in 30 villages, providing instruction in human rights, reproductive health, problem-solving and health and hygiene.
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The Soul Beat seeks to cover the full range of communication for development activities. Inclusion of an item does not imply endorsement or support by The Partners.
Please send material for The Soul Beat to the Editor - Anja Venth aventh@comminit.com
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