"A Pilot Study: What's The Role of Volunteerism and Local Community Mobilization in Combating Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) In Sudan?"
Over the past two decades, female genital mutilation (FGM) has been increasingly recognized as human rights issue among local governments, the international community, and the health community world-wide. It is estimated that between 80 and 135 million females in the world today have undergone a procedure to remove part of or all of their external sexual organs. In Africa, northern Sudan's FGM prevalence is one of the highest, not only in the continent, but world-wide. Despite previous efforts made to eradicate FGM, the practice continues at high levels, accounting to approximately 91% in northern Sudan. Traditional campaigns against FGM often focus on health and religious issues targeting mainly healthcare providers (including midwives), religious leaders, and political leaders. These previous strategies were based on a top-down approach. These efforts have resulted so far, in little to no impact and a slow eradication process. This justifies the current high prevalence rate. For this reason, the united nations (UNV, UNDP and UNFPA) designed a pilot project aimed at combating FGM in Sudan by drawing on volunteerism, capacity building, and local community mobilization. This pilot project used three innovative approaches: (1) volunteering based on peer education by the local community, (2) sexual education (3) mobilizing males and youth. The target areas were blocks 14 and 15 in Abu Se'id (a city that is 15 kilometers from Sudan's capital, Khartoum). This project targeted the local community (men, women, and youth) but mainly focused on children at the primary school level by integrating an FGM health education curriculum and extracurricular activities. This pilot study's goal is to find a strategy that has a positive tangible impact (reducing FGM rates in the Abu Se'id area), has a potential for replication (transferable into neighboring cities), will foster effective partnerships, and demonstrate sustainability. This is an 18 month pilot study and I was there during their intervention implementation phase and their evaluation phase. I was primarily involved with data analysis, health education at local primary schools and program evaluation.