First, we want to welcome back Xheni Dani as our Policy and Advocacy Coordinator and to introduce Juan Pablo Alvarez Vega as our new Interim Operations and Governance Officer!

The Secretariat is excited to welcome Dea Nicoletta Continolo as the new Communications Assistant through the European Solidarity Corps volunteering programme. She will be working primarily on the Understanding Community Voices project, and assisting in the communications work of the organisation.

The End FGM EU Network is 10 years old! For the past decade, End FGM EU has worked tirelessly to mobilize policy, resources, and public support across Europe to end FGM. To celebrate this milestone, we had a special event on November 6th  co-hosted by Members of the European Parliament, MEP Lina Gálvez (S&D, Spain) and MEP Evin Incir (S&D, Sweden) at the European Parliament in Brussels. Multiple representatives from our member organizations attended, together with our ambassadors, MEP allies,like DG JUST Maria Mollica and GREVIO Expert Pille Tsopp-Pagan, Elena Kasko(UNFPA Brussels), and Hafida Bachir, Gender Policy Advisor to the Belgian Secretary of State,  stakeholders,and community advocates. We reflected on past achievements, discussed new challenges and opportunities, and thought of a strategic path forward. This 10th anniversary represented not only a moment to celebrate past achievements but also a renewed call to action. You can find more information about the event, including pictures of the participants and their testimonites on our website.

KSE 2024 was hosted by Terre des Femmes in Berlin, Germany, on November 25th, in recognition of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

The event's theme, "Together for Change - A Decade of Fighting to End Female Genital Mutilation in Europe," brought together key voices in the fight against FGM/C. Prior to the event, a powerful collective action took place at the Brandenburg Gate, joined by Lisa Paus, the Federal Minister for Family Affairs, who delivered an inspiring speech. During the event, members of the Network, experts, and MEP allies shared their knowledge and insights on the fight against FGM/C, with a focus on protection, support, and advocacy. The discussions explored the link between FGM and patriarchy, examining how this form of violence is upheld by patriarchal systems and beliefs. This tied into the End FGM EU Campaign, #FGMIsPatriarchy, which frames FGM as a form of Violence Against Women, emphasizing its symbolic impact on all women, beyond those directly affected. The event also celebrated the progress made by the Network and its member organizations, highlighting good practices at the national level and promoting the transferability of these practices across Europe. Photos and a recap of the KSE Event will follow- Stay tuned!

The End FGM European Network, along with its partners, successfully hosted the second webinar launch of the End FGM E-Campus on November 20th, from 17:00 to 18:00 (CET).

Following our first webinar on September 12th, 2024, where we introduced the platform with guest speaker Dr. Jasmine Abdulcadir, who discussed “FGM across Europe: social, political, educational, and medical challenges” (watch the webinar here), we were honored to host our second launch. During the event, we provided an overview of the End FGM E-Campus platform and discussed the critical role of developing tools to train professionals in supporting FGM survivors and working towards its sustainable eradication.
 
The End FGM E-Campus is a free online learning platform focused on female genital mutilation (FGM), designed for European professionals engaged with this issue. Available in five languages—English, French, Greek, Italian, and Portuguese—the platform is the result of an EU-co-funded project coordinated by MIGS (Cyprus) and implemented in partnership with AIDOS (Italy), APF (Portugal), CUT (Cyprus), the End FGM European Network (EU-level), and GAMS (Belgium).

Vincent Briard, Senior Gender-Based Violence Officer at UNHCR Regional Bureau for Europe, and Hafida Bachir, Gender Policy Advisor to the Belgian Secretary of State, joined us to discuss FGM and share existing best practices in Europe for engaging with professionals. Thank you to all who participated! If you missed the event, you can still access the full webinar here. 
Click here to see the full event agenda.

This project, funded by Erasmus+, aims to facilitate the creation of a podcast series by youth for youth on FGM and Gender-Based Violence in collaboration with Save A Girl Save A Generation, AkiDwa, FSAN, FORWARD UK. During the launch of the Purple Chair podcast, on October 11th to mark the International Day of the Girl Child, our inspiring Youth Ambassadors gave an exclusive preview of the first episode! 

Be sure to follow our podcast on Spotify,  Amazon and Youtube to stay updated with the next episodes. Episode 6 will be released on Friday, November 29th, featuring our Young Advocate Sherifat Adeniyi and MEP Evin Incir, as they discuss the importance of allyship and solidarity in ending FGM.  Don't miss it!

From the 14th of October to the 18th along with 7 other organisations we organised the European Week of Action for Girls (EWAG). EWAG is a week-long series of events organised around the day of the girl child during which we bring young advocates from all across the globe to exchange with policy makers in Brussels to prioritise girls’ rights in the EU’s external action. The theme this year was #EU4Girls calling on the EU to build on their commitments for girls’ rights. 

This year our two young ambassadors Imtinan and Sherifat joined us and took part in many activities. On October 16th, youth advocates gathered at the European Parliament to engage with newly elected MEPs, Permanent representative and Political groups on strengthening the EU's commitment to girls' rights. This dialogue  focused on their role as activists, the importance of ending FGM in Europe and beyond, the need for more youth representation ensuring that the voices of young people are heard and that girls' rights remain a priority on the EU agenda. 

From the 18th to the 19th of October, Tania Hosseinian, Policy and Advocacy Officer, attended the AHCAMA forum in Barcelona organised by AHCAMA. Tania took part in a panel discussion during which she presented the work of the Network focusing on the situation in Europe, successes and upcoming challenges for the overall movement to end FGM. It was also the opportunity to discuss with a wide range of activist and CSOs to promote and exchange good practices to end FGM in Europe and beyond.  

Back in July 2024, Ursula Von der Leyen was re-elected as president of the European Commission. As we are entering a new cycle, the College of Commissioners will also change. Earlier in October the Commission shared the list and mission letters of the candidate commissioners. While we expressed our concerns about the appointment of a commissioner that will at the same time handle equality and crisis preparedness, we also enhanced our efforts to ensure FGM and ending gender-based violence remain a top priority for the next Commission. Hearings by the Parliament were organised on the 6th of November during which MEPs were able to question the candidates on their priorties. Ahead of this, we liased with our allies in the Parliament and suggested questions which they could ask, focusing on strong commitments to end gender-based violence including FGM. In the coming months we will keep engaging with newly appointed commissioners and will ensure stronger collaboration to further advance our cause in the next 5 years.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact on violence against women across the world. Violence Against Women (VAW), especially Domestic Violence (DV), dramatically increased during the pandemic, leading to a surge in demand for support services for women survivors of violence. The lockdowns created a ‘pandemic within a pandemic’ of violence against women, with perpetrators using social distancing measures to further control and harm their victims. Women faced multiple vulnerabilities and barriers in accessing support services, including difficulties in seeking help due to confinement measures and increased risks of violence at home. However, the COVID-19 pandemic also put additional strain on already stretched operational capacity of WSSs, including the need to shift to remote service provision.

To tackle these issues, the aim of the TRUST project was to ensure the capacity and resilience of WSSs to effectively adapt, improve and upscale their services and interventions to reflect the challenges brought by the COVID-19 crisis, as well as develop robust mechanisms in preparation for future emergencies/crises.

In the last months Aidos, in collaboration with other women’s associations coordinated by D.i.Re – Women in the network against violence, worked on the Shadow Report of the first Istanbul Convention’s thematic evaluation about Italy. The report, published in July 2024, highlights the delays in the management of funds for shelters, the gaps in data collection - and especially gender-disaggregated data - and the need to increase training activities for media and institutions’ staff on gender issues and gender-based violence, including female genital mutilation (FGM).

On the 12^th of September the End FGM E-Campus training platform on female genital mutilation was launched. AIDOS will organise several events in Italy to present the platform to professionals, local authorities and students, including a training for psycho-social operators at the Illustrated Violence Festival in Bologna (on December 2nd), and an interdisciplinary round-table in Florence (on December 3rd), in partnership with Nosotras. The e-learning free platform aims to contribute to preventing and responding to FGM though the capacity building of professionals and victim/survivor-centred access to justice, by providing high quality, comprehensive, holistic and interdisciplinary theoretical and practical knowledge to professionals dealing with FGM-affected individuals and communities.

In July 2024, the Swiss "letter of protection against female genital mutilation" was published. It is intended to help families travelling to their country of origin or a third country to defend themselves against possible pressure from their social environment to have their daughters cutted. The Network against Female Genital Mutilation Switzerland and multipliers from practising communities were involved in the development of the letter of protection and closely monitored its creation. The letter of protection is available in 8 languages and was signed by two members of the Swiss government, Élisabeth Baume-Schneider (Head of the Federal Department of Home Affairs) and Beat Jans (Head of the Federal Department of Justice and Police), which emphasises its official character. The letter can be ordered in printed form or downloaded as a PDF.

AkiDwA's FGM project has made significant strides in community outreach, professional training, and support services during September 2024. A highlight of our recent activities includes training session for over 60+ medical professionals under the National Cervical Screening program. Additionally, we provided an FGM session in Co Westmeath, Ireland for 52 professionals, including GPs, social workers, and HSE representatives, fostering important connections with center managers. Health Expo was conducted where numerous health service providers came together in Cork.

We'd like to thank all members for their collaboration in gathering data for the updated Interactive Map. Launched by End FGM EU in 2021, this map serves as a key resource on FGM laws, policies, services, and data across Europe. It also continues to inspire efforts to end FGM and support survivors. With each update, we strive to foster mutual learning and cooperation in our shared goal of ending FGM for all in Europe and beyond.

Every year, donors meet to discuss how to better fund the anti-FGM movement. This year’s edition was organised by USAID, The Wallace Global Fund, the World Bank and Unicef in Washington DC. The Network represented by Rukio and Nejma and colleagues from the Global Platform had the opportunity to join the meeting to give a presentation with a specific focus on the funding gap and bring concrete recommendations to donors. Over the past months the Advocacy working group took time to build recommendations stressing the challenges and what is needed from donors to reach SDG 5.3 by 2030. These recommendations were included in the presentation and shared with donors during the meeting. We are looking forward to seeing the outcome of this meeting and hope our recommendations will be implemented.  

In the framework of the Global Platform for Action to end FGM/C, the Network participated in the organisation of a global collaboration conference organised with the US Network and the Georges Washington University uniting in Washington DC CSOs, activits, survivors and funders from the whole world. Rukio Omer co-president of the Network and Nejma Sayeh Policy and Advocacy Officer represented the Network and took part in this 2-day long conference. Nejma presented the work of the Network and all the achievements that were made over the past 10 years. 

It was the opportunity for the Network to exchange about future challenges when it comes to funding for organisations and in particular grassroots and the importance of creating more collaboration between organisations, networks and donors.  

Following up on the latest European elections, the Secretariat has been working on creating new allyships and building on old ones to ensure strong political support for the next 5 years. As part of that, the Policy and Advocacy team developed a dedicated welcome pack to newly elected MEPs. This pack’s goal is to give MEPs the tools to end FGM, including a presentation of the Network, key facts about FGM in Europe and recommendations to help them understand how and why they should advocate to end FGM.  We strongly encourage you to share widely the Welcome Pack and we are always happy to distribute hard copies whenever you are in Brussels.

Together with our Portuguese member, APF, we have submitted a shadow report to GREVIO to highlight the current situation and provide concrete recommendations on prevention, protection, prosecution, and integrated policies related to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in Portugal. While this report focuses on FGM, it emphasizes the practice within the broader continuum of gender-based violence against women and girls, advocating for a comprehensive and holistic approach to tackling these issues

Our amazing Ambassadors gathered in Brussels for a very productive

Intergenerational Ambassadors Training on November 7th! The training included sessions on effective communication with authorities, public speaking, advocacy, and a fundraising workshop led by our external consultant, Charlène Jollivet. Our Ambassadors left inspired with new knowledge, exchanged valuable ideas, and reaffirmed their crucial role in our Network. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to work together and drive positive change!