New Updates from our Amazing Ambassadors
Take a look at what our Senior & Youth Ambassadors have been involved in lately!
Read about all the activities in which our ambassadors have been involved before the end of the year.
Since the inception of our Senior and Youth Ambassador programmes, End FGM EU has been constantly working on expanding the number of participants and giving more space to new voices. It has been a pleasure and an honour to welcome Imtinan Munir and Sherifat Adeniy to the Youth Ambassadors programme!
Last but not least, we would like to dedicate our sincere thanks to our youth activists and ambassadors who are leaving the network, thank you for your work in support of FGM-affected communities and for the time and energy they have devoted to the network over the past years. We wish Fatucha Banora, Ana So, and Alya Harding all the best!
SEPTEMBER
THE FEDERATION OF THE SOMALI ASSOCIATIONS IN THE NETHERLANDS (FSAN):
Protecting girls when going on holidays is a priority in the Netherlands and for our Senior Ambassador Ahlam Aziz. On the 1st and 2nd of September 2022, she led an activity in Arabic on FGM with communities from the Dutch region of the Hague. Together, they learned the basics of FGM and the law in The Netherlands and provided certificates signed by ministers and organisations of the Netherlands. Also, as part of her work with the communities, she made home visits to survivors and for those who need it, she encouraged them to seek professional help at the clinics.
OCTOBER
European Week of Actions for Girls
On Tuesday, 11th October, the European Week of Actions for Girls (EWAG) kicked-off in Brussels. During this week several activities were organised around the advocacy agenda “10 in 10: The world through the eyes of a girl”.
Our Youth Ambassador, Amal Hussein Ismail, had the opportunity to participate in different events that took place during this week, where different topics relevant to the protection of girls and women were discussed, such as the prevention of FGM and the importance of generating support mechanisms for survivors in Europe and third countries.
Among the different advocacy actions, we can highlight her participation together with other young people in the European Union Parliament, where she addressed the importance of supporting and protecting young people from FGM and other harmful practices at the DEVE Committee.
END FGM Europe Network
European Solidarity Corps Programme
At the beginning of November, we welcomed two new volunteers, Amal Hussein and Nina Medan from the European Solidarity Corps, to the team. The two young volunteers will be leading the programme project "Understanding Community Voices" and facilitate the understanding of the needs of FGM-affected communities in Europe.
AkidWa AKINA DADA:
Working with youth to be agents of change is one of the programme's objectives in working with FGM-affected communities. Our youth ambassador Cynthia Karanja has carried out several high-profile initiatives with different activities in Ireland.
These activities included the following event:
On 17 September, a workshop was held for health professionals on intervention with survivors of gender-based harmful practices. All attendees were provided with an intervention manual, the AKIDWAs book on FGM.
The handbook "Female Genital Mutilation Information for Healthcare Professionals Working in Ireland" aims to provide answers and training for healthcare professionals in Ireland by answering a several of essential questions that will enable them to have a broad understanding of the communities affected by FGM.
NOVEMBER
On the 16th of November 2022, the Mind the Gap project partners, the End FGM European Network, Aidos Italy (Rome), APF (Lisbon, Portugal), and Medicos Del Mundo (Madrid, Spain), hosted an international conference taking stock of the 2-year project coming to an end.
The hybrid event, titled: "Promoting Gender Equality in the classrooms and beyond", presented the work carried out through Mind the Gap and the project results and was a space to discuss ways to ensure gender equality is upheld and promoted through education.
Our former Youth Ambassador Amal Hussein Ismail from Save a Girl Save a Generation was part of the panel discussion, where she discussed the importance of creating more inclusive educational curricula.
YSAFE (Youth Sexual Awareness for Europe)
With IPPF leading of the project, the End FGM EU Network has collaborated with seven national sexual and reproductive health and rights organisations (IPPF EN members in Portugal, Cyprus, Estonia, Spain, North Macedonia, Latvia, and Serbia) to create a new set of guidelines on how to deliver safe and effective digital sexuality education. It will incorporate everything we have learned during the first year of the pandemic about the rapid shift to online sex education into one easy-to-use tool.
Our Youth Ambassadors, Alya Harding, Bassmala Elbushary and Cynthia Karanja were involved in implementing the drafted guidelines among other young people across Europe. Alya Harding and Isma Benboulerbah – Coordinator of Programmes – co-wrote the chapters on online trolling and safety when engaging with young people on CSE and FGM topics. The brochure and its webste were officially launched online on the 17th of November under the title “YSAFE - IPPF EN webinar - launch of new guidance on online sexuality education”.
This YSAFE toolkit will help educators and the organizations they belong to move their comprehensive sexuality education activities online.
FORWARD UK
As part of her work, our Senior Ambassador Aminata Bah held the position of "Head of Women Support and Community Partnership" at the charity La FRATERNITE, a community-based charity founded in 2007 by the Guinean diaspora in the UK. The charity work in the UK and Guinea to raise awareness of FGM/C, and support vulnerable communities where their needs are, inclusive of girls, and women affected by GBV, FGM/C, poverty and other forms of harmful practices.
Saturday 19th of November 2022 an award ceremony was organised by the charity to acknowledge the hard work of all trainees and honour their achievements, by delivering them their training certificate. Not only that 25 trainees are now knowledgeable and competent in safeguarding children in the UK context, but they can also train others and share what they have learned with their families, and the community as a whole.
