Working together to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Wales

Dydd Llun Awst 15th, 2016

Summer holidays are here and families are looking forward to spending a great time together either here in the UK or on holiday. Unfortunately for some girls, this is the time they are going to start a long walk of pain and trauma as they face FGM. Together we can stop FGM by spreading the word to raise people’s awareness.

FGM is recognised internationally as a harmful practice and a violation of the human rights of girls and women. According to the World Health Organization, FGM involves the partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs, for non-medical reasons.

The precise scale of FGM in the UK is unknown but around 60,000 girls aged 0-14 were born in England and Wales to mothers who had undergone FGM. Approximately 103,000 women aged 15-49 and approximately 24,000 women aged 50 and over who migrated to England and Wales are living with the consequences (Marcfarlane, A and Dorkenoo, E. 2015. Prevalence of FGM in England and Wales, National and local estimates, London, UK: City University London and Equality Now).

In Wales Bawso is at the forefront in the fight to eradicate FGM. It established the FGM Health and Safeguarding project in 2010 which aims to develop and strengthen community-based preventive work to safeguard those at risk.  Since the start of the project we have worked with over 2500 families to raise awareness about the issues in order to protect women and girls at risk and provide support to survivors. The community-based approach has been a success because the community are the key drivers of change to make Wales an FGM free nation. They are involved in the design and delivery of activities.

As part of ongoing work to prevent FGM, we engage with young people and empower them to raise their voices to spark conversation about FGM related issues. The young people have developed scripts and performed in plays which condemn the practice with support from National Theatre Wales. More recently they produced a leaflet and film for use to raise awareness in schools through a partnership of NSPCC, Bawso, Wales Government and Burning Red. Click here to see their work

The eradication of FGM remains a priority despite funding challenges. There is still a lot of work that needs to be done to safeguard girls at risk as well as support survivors of FGM.  It is for this reason that Bawso will be participating in the Cardiff half Marathon this October to raise funds to continue its work on FGM.  We invite people to run/walk/jog in Cardiff Half Marathon in order to fundraise for Bawso. For detail information about the Race against Female Genital Mutilation, please click here.

Donation for the programme can be made via Just Giving page here.

Further information about Bawso, please contact:

Email: info@bawso.org.uk

Tel: 02920644633

Website: www.bawso.org.uk

Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn @bawso