Skip navigation

A new approach to end Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in the EU

REPLACE 2 Project Updates: 23rd June 2014

Focus Group Progression & Intervention Development

First and foremost, we’d like to welcome Yussif Alhassan to the REPLACE 2 Team! Yussif will be replacing David as project manager at Coventry University. Yussif has a background in health policy and health in developing countries, and will be a welcome addition to the team!

The REPLACE 2 partners in Portugal, Spain, and Italy have almost completed their Theoretical Domains focus groups and have begun their narrative interviews of individual community members. The data we’ve gleaned from the focus groups thus far is proving very interesting, and the focus groups have really helped us identify those barriers and facilitators to the fantastic ideas for interventions for each community. The next step is to really specify those interventions in behavioural terms and plan exactly how they’re going to be implemented. Check back here for next month’s update to read all about our new partners’ intervention plans.

Our older partners, FSAN and FORWARD UK, are further down the line in their respective interventions. FORWARD UK have trained 12 influential women to give them the skills and knowledge to deliver interventions. It is likely their intervention will have the goal of increasing and improving the communication about FGM in the family setting. FSAN have trained 10 women from the Somali community as leaders in health. These women sought Qur’anic teachers that teach their children at Mosque, and asked them about the possibility of introducing FGM to their lessons. As a result, eight Qur’anic teachers have agreed! Training these teachers was completed last month and a lesson plan was devised. There was a pilot lesson 22nd June, so check back here next month for an update!