Saria Khalifa - Youth Programme Lead, FORWARD - DFID Girl Summit 2014

"Youth advocacy is about passion in the face of adversity: about challenging the status quo; questioning the expectation that young people are unable or unwilling to stand up and make a change. It is challenging the idea that the youth voice is too timid, too quiet, too distanced, too inexperienced, and too ignorant to have any impact." - FORWARD

Spotlight A7 - "The Role of Health, Education & Social Care Professionals in Creating Change"

Context: This presentation is from one of the 14 "Spotlights on Progress" video-recorded sessions from the Girl Summit 2014, London, United Kingdom (UK). The sessions were organised to share best practice between practitioners, grassroots activists, and government ministers across the issues of female genital mutilation (FGM) (also FGM/C - female genital mutilation/cutting) and child, early, and forced marriage (CEFM). Girl Summit is a project of the Department for International Development (DFID), UK. This particular spotlight shares stories about inspiring teachers and committed health workers, as well as evidence from around the world showing how health and education systems and services can connect with communities.

Profile of speaker: Ms. Saria Khalifa leads the Foundation for Women's Health Research and Development - FORWARD - Youth Programme and has worked with young people at FORWARD for four years. FORWARD is an African Women's Diaspora support and campaign charity, working in Europe and Africa to advance and safeguard the sexual and reproductive health and rights of African girls and women. Part of this work involves addressing FGM and child marriage. Ms. Khalifa coordinates both national and European youth projects and partnerships, which aim to train and develop young people to become active campaigners and youth advocates on the issue of FGM.

Strategy overview: In her presentation "Young People Speak Out Against FGM: FGM Schools Programme, UK", which can be viewed in the video below, Ms. Khalifa spoke about FORWARD's Schools Programme, which has engaged over 3,000 students in over 170 sessions in 30 schools across London, UK. Ms. Khalifa talked about the work of the FORWARD schools programme. She explained that schools are among the best placed to tackle issues such as FGM, as they have the trust of the community, and a lot of time is spent there. They can also be considered "a norm hub" - they are in a position to change harmful social norms. Ms. Khalifa explained that, in order to tackle FGM, we need to engage and empower teachers, parents, and students. Teachers must be equipped with the knowledge and confidence to address FGM. Parents must be interacted with informally, in their own language, to build consensus to tackle FGM. Students can be engaged with campaigning and equipped with the knowledge to provide peer support, as students are more comfortable turning to other students. Whole schools need to be engaged in a friendly, norm-challenging way. Ms. Khalif said that students, parents, and teachers alike must understand why FGM is such an important issue and where it fits into the context of violence against women. And finally, schools must engage with the wider community and outside organisation to further tackle harmful social norms.

As detailed on the Young People Speak Out (YPSO) page on the FORWARD website, this programme provides skills, training, and support for young people (16-25) and works with them to create projects, events, and workshops in their local communities as a way to raise awareness about FGM in the UK. Strategies and activities include:

• Youth Training: Providing skills-building workshops and sessions on leadership, FGM, campaigning, and gender-based violence;
• Youth Advocates: Supporting young people to organise events, projects, and peer education for their communities, peers, and friends. The youth advocates are also involved in youth empowerment and campaigning projects;
• Public Awareness Events and Projects: Organising what are meant to be creative, interactive, and inspiring events to raise awareness of FGM, including spoken word and music events, photography exhibitions, and film screenings;
• Outreach and Support: Offering emotional support for young women affected by or at risk of FGM, as well as aiding them to access specialised medical support;
• School Awareness Project: Delivering FGM awareness sessions to schools, colleges, universities, and youth centres (with audiences including students/young people, as well staff or adults working with young people);
• Youth Friendly FGM Resources: Getting the information and the facts to young people in a way that is creative, fun, engaging, and easy to understand; and
• Research: Conducting research with young people to learn about their experiences with, knowledge of, and attitudes toward FGM.

Overview of this Summit session: "Change is underway. Health, education and social care systems and those within them can make it go faster and further. This spotlight will share exciting stories and evidence from around the world: stories of inspiring teachers and committed health workers - and evidence for how health and education systems and services can connect with communities." Following an introduction by Edward Timpson MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children & Families in the Department for Education, England, the Chair of this session, Jane Ellison, MP Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Public Health at the Department of Health, moderated the panel of speakers. In order of appearance, they are:

• Dr. Guyo Jaldesa, Senior Lecturer, University of Nairobi, and Coordinator of the Africa Coordinating Centre for the Abandonment of FGM
• Astrid Fairclough, Female Genital Mutilation Prevention - Programme Manager, Department of Health, Government of the United Kingdom
• Saria Khalifa, Youth Programme Lead, FORWARD
• Dr. Ravi Verma Regional Director, ICRW Asia Regional Office
• Sonia Aziz Malik Senior Lecturer, Regional Institute of Gender, Diversity, Peace and Rights, Ahfad University for Women

Footage of this (available below) presentation and others are available on DFID’s YouTube channel.

The Girl Summit is a project of DFID. Click here and scroll down to see the full list of individuals and organisations committed to working on girls' issues, as well as a list of Girl Summit Charter signatories.