Dear Friends,

We have come to the end of a challenging year. The pandemic and its political, social, and economic consequences demanded a lot from us all. Yet, despite it all, with our partners' and supporters' priceless help, we have accomplished a lot. End FGM EU, and each of our Members, proved once again our resilience and ingenuity by working to achieve even more than what we had planned in 2020. This odd year became an opportunity for us to learn and innovate. We found new ways to connect and to work together, ways that we can carry with us past these troubled times.

We thank you for engaging with us and with our activities throughout this year, and we look forward to sharing more with you in the years to come.

In this Newsletter, you will find information on our Annual Campaign coming to an end, the amazing Webinars we have organised in this last trimester, our Members' current projects, and much more.

End FGM EU wishes you and your loved ones Happy Holidays and a restful break. We cannot wait to get back to work in the new year to end FGM for all. Until then, congratulations on making it through 2020!

All the best,

End FGM EU

This year, End FGM EU's team saw many changes... and they are not finished yet! We are happy to welcome on board the new Project Assistant, that joined the team a few weeks ago, Lydie Missi! This month, we will also say goodbye to three of our colleagues, Fatima Awil, Hani Diriye and Maria Paola Chessa. We wish them all the best and we thank them for their amazing work and what they have brought to End FGM EU during the past years.

Our 2020 Annual Campaign #endFGMmyths has come to an end! In the past months, we tackled one specific myth about FGM and its harmful consequences on women’s lives each month. We shared with you infographics, videos, and information to learn more about Female Genital Mutilation and how to end this practice. 

To close our Campaign, we decided to debunk even more myths and misconceptions about FGM by asking some questions to people on the streets! Check out our newest video and comment telling us if you knew the right answers to all the questions!

For the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence, End FGM EU shared about different ways to do activism against GBV every day. Activism can often be reduced to its most “traditional” forms such as petitioning and demonstrations, but there are many ways to speak up and make an impact against an issue such as GBV. Our aim was to empower people to find their own way of being an activist and fighting GBV. 

We did a complete restyling of our Policy & Advocacy Page on our Website! Check the new page to discover: 

• Why influence policy & what Advocacy is;
• How End FGM EU influences policy;
• The Network's main areas of work;
• Who End FGM EU works with;
• Our main policy achievements. 

After months of advocacy in cooperation with our Members at national level, and in partnership with many other organisations at European level, and intense negotiations between the Parliament and the Council, on 10 November a deal on the next long-term EU budget was agreed. It increases the amount of budget allocated to a few programmes, including a doubling of the Justice, Rights and Values Programme, the only funding scheme to fund work against Gender-Based Violence, including FGM, in Europe. This had been our core ask since a couple of years now, and it is great to see the impact of our work, which hopefully will mean more funds to combat Gender-Based Violence in our region!

At the beginning of December, End FGM EU submitted its input to the European Commission, regarding the EU strategy on children’s rights. This strategy will span from 2021-2024 and provide the framework for EU action to better promote and protect children’s rights.

At the beginning of November, within the Global Platform for Action to end FGM/C and together with Girls Not Brides, End FGM EU has launched an online campaign around Generation Equality and sent a joint open letter to the Leaders of the Action Coalition on Gender-Based Violence, to ensure FGM and child marriage are included on the agenda.

In the past months, we hosted the Webinar "Ensuring a Gender-Based Violence education in Europe" & Isma Benboulerbah, our Project Coordinator, had many key meetings to promote the Project and talk about it to a broader audience. 

The End FGM European Network welcomes the launch by the European Commission of the Gender Action Plan III (GAP III), an agenda for gender equality and women’s empowerment in EU external action. 

In the past 2 months, AIDOS closed the “MED-RES” project with the Webinar “Sexual and Gender-Based Violence in the context of migration in the Mediterranean region” and talked about the danger of stereotypes and fake news within the Global Health Festival of Padova.

On 6 November 2020, the first Office for Assistance to Victims of Domestic Violence and/or Harmful Traditional Practices (GAV) started operating, thanks to the synergistic work of the High Commission for Migration, the Portuguese Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality, and APF.

On the occasion of the International Day of the Girl Child (11 October), Equipop launched a podcast on Female Genital Mutilation. The podcast was produced as part of the Let's CHANGE project and consists of 5 episodes, in which different experts speak alongside Survivors and activists.

During the past months, the Ifrah Foundation organised events to raise awareness around FGM, developed a pledge-based campaign with UNFPA Somalia, worked with medical professionals and religious leaders, and held a worldwide screening during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence.

Lessan, one of our German Members, was nominated for the National Integration Prize by Chancellor Angela Merkel. Their FGM project "Men Standing Up For Gender Equality" was nominated by the Chancellor's jury among the last 10 best integration projects in Germany. Our most sincere congratulations!

Back in September, Orchid Project published a Policy Briefing on COVID-19 and FGM: "Impacts of COVID-19 on female genital cutting".

On 1 and 2 October, the CHAIN project, coordinated by TERRE DES FEMMES and co-funded by the European Union, started officially with a kick-off meeting. End FGM EU is one of the partners of the project and will work on an awareness-raising campaign!

More than 25 activists and intercultural mediators from all over Spain met this October for the first meeting of afro-descendant activists and mediators against FGM.

During the past weeks, we hosted a Research Webinars Series for our Members. On 4 December, Adriana Kaplan Marcusán (Spain), Fabienne Richard (Belgium), Livia Ortensi (Italy) and Ramin Kawous (The Netherlands) talked about “FGM prevalence: challenges and ways forward for data collection”.

In 2020, End FGM EU has been part of the new EIGE research on women and girls at risk of FGM in 4 EU countries: Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain and Austria. As Network Coordinator of the research, in partnership with ICF and the Senior Researcher Sarah O’Neill, End FGM EU supported the organisation of focus groups, reaching out to communities and organising 2 big conferences in October and November this year to share the information on the research.

Between October and November, 75 experts from 44 organisations in 28 countries and from 5 world regions gathered online to participate in multiple virtual stakeholder dialogue sessions in the run up to the FGM Donors Working Group meeting on 16-17 November. The aim was to provide a concrete set of recommendations for donors and key actors in the field.

The Purple Chair project, after the publication of all the videos in the Series, is coming to and end! The Youth Ambassadors met for the final event and starting launching the videos at national level! 

On 19 November, End FGM EU participated in the Ubuntu Symposium event, on the "Impact of COVID-19 on the Sexual, Reproductive Health and Rights of women and girls". Our Policy & Advocacy Officer, Fatima Awil, was a speaker during the event and provided a European perspective.

On 3 December, End FGM EU convened a meeting of the Inter-Regional Coalition to end FGM to connect and welcome new regional Networks and individuals in this global partnership. The meeting included updates on regional trends and priorities, as well as brainstorming on future actions and collaboration.

Safe Space 4 Black Women is an initiative providing emotional support and wellbeing for Black women globally. It was co-founded by our friend Dr Leyla Hussein OBE, and Fatima Hagi and is currenlty asking for donation to continue their essential work for the mental health of Black women worldwide.