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Gambia News : Gambia Takes On As National Program UAB Project To Abolish FGM
The Government of the Republic of The Gambia has decided to create a
National Programme based on the "Initiation without Mutilation" project
(Iniciació sense mutilació), directed by UAB researcher Adriana Kaplan,
financed by Fundació "la Caixa", and managed by the Institute of
Primary Care Research IDIAP Jordi Gol and the NGO Wassu Gambia Kafo.
The project aims to eliminate the genital lesions created by these
traditional rituals by proposing alternative methods which prevent
physical mutilations but continue to respect the tradition. Researchers
thus proposed a circular approach between Gambia and Spain to train
health professionals of both countries in this area and to raise the
population's awareness of the problems posed by such mutilations.
More than 130 million women in the world have been victims to
some type of genital mutilation (FGM) and it is estimated that every
year over three million girls are at risk of becoming victims of this
initiation ritual. According to a 2005 census, more than 3600 women in
Catalonia had been victims of some type of FGM and over 2000 girls were
at risk of becoming victims of this practice in the next few years. To
combat this problem, in 1989 researcher Adriana Kaplan began a research
line on sexual and reproductive health among immigrant populations with
fieldworks in Gambia and Spain.
Now Dr Kaplan has achieved one of the most important goals of
her work, which is the acceptance of the Initiation without Mutilation
project by the Gambian government and the creation of a National
Programme under the Health Ministry's Department of State for Health
& Social Welfare. The exceptional relevance of achieving this goal
becomes apparent if one takes into account that only ten years before
the Gambian government had prohibited any type of awareness-raising
activity related to female genital mutilations as a response to the
aggressiveness of some NGOs towards this issue.
The project consists in applied research, training, material
designs and proposed methodologies, and aims to implement a pioneering
strategy in Gambia and Spain that would solve the problem of FGM in
both countries. The strategy is based on awareness-raising and
prevention and on increasing the decision-making power of women so that
they and their communities can adapt alternative proposals which do not
include mutilations. This implies proposing and promoting substitute
models for the rite of passage which would not include genital
mutilation but at the same time would continue to be functional and
culturally acceptable.
One of the project's highlights will be the creation of an FGM
Observatory which has already published interesting data on this issue.
According to data from the Observatory's past survey, out of the 185
sub-Saharan immigrants belonging to the Primary Care Centre of the city
of Mataró (CAP del Maresme) 58 per cent of the women do not consider
that FGM causes health problems, 74 per cent think Spanish laws only
penalise cases of FGM practiced in Spain (parents who allow FGM to be
practised on their children in their home country are also given prison
sentences), 57 per cent welcome the alternative ritual proposed by UAB
researchers, and 88 per cent of women and 71 per cent of men are
against FGM. With regard to health professionals in Catalonia, the
survey of 516 people reveals that only eight per cent of participants
had adequate knowledge of what FGM is and of the types of mutilations
practised.
The Gambia-Spain circular approach (to be carried out mainly
in Catalonia given the large Gambian communities residing here) will
make it possible to use the synergies created with Gambian immigrants
in their role as opinion generators and models in their home country.
Due to the growing demographic weight of the Gambian community in Spain
it is possible that conflict situations related to female genital
mutilations could become a common problem in the near future.
In Gambia, this project is being coordinated by the Faculty of
Medicine and Health Sciences of the University of Gambia with the
collaboration of UAB. The faculty will be in charge of training the
country's public health professionals. For Adriana Kaplan, the
project's research director: "This means that the knowledge transfer
will take place and remain in Gambia, which guarantees its
sustainability whereas itinerant training has proven to have little
impact on the population. Thanks to the government's participation we
have a solid project, a historical milestone which will lead to the
training of health professionals all over the country." Dr Kaplan
states that "although there are sanctions, this problem must be solved
with social, religious and cultural transformations based on the
respect towards their traditional rituals, but offering alternatives
that do not involve mutilations."
When asked about the international projection of the project,
Dr Kaplan affirms that "the learnings and conclusions from this project
can pave the way for the application of this strategy in other
populations with rites of passage containing similar initiation
rituals, which in this case would include the rest of Western Africa".
FGM can be practised on girls shortly after their birth up
until their pre-adolescent years, but always before they begin to
menstruate. The injuries caused by these mutilations can worsen the
health of the girls or even cause their death, while they perpetrate
gender inequality, discrimination and a systematic violation of the
rights of these women.
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