Young activists launch campaign to promote abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation
The CHAT Plus Changing Attitude Plus project, co-organised by the FAS and the Wassu Foundation, launched an innovative communication campaign with the aim of preventing female genital mutilation (FGM) through the involvement of young activists, UAB students and young people from other sectors who joined in to collaborate. The campaign consists of awareness-raising actions, the creation of a comic book and the recording and distribution of six videos starring the project's young activists under the title of “A Future Without FGM”.
FGM is a global concern affecting 31 countries, according to data from UNICEF. Despite the advances made, there is still much to be done until reaching the 2030 Agenda's Sustainable Development Goals. In Europea alone, it is estiamted that some 600,000 women are living with the consequences of FGM, and that 190,000 more are at risk in 17 European countries.
Dring this academic year, young students have been learning about this subject and conducting several awareness-raising activities both at university and at secondary school centres, community centres, neighbourhoods, etc. They offered talks, cineforums, workshops and worked on the script and recording of these videos.
In addition, the activists collaborated in the creation of a comic, with the team of illustrators from Incòmoda Associació. The comic tells the story of Maria and Binta, which illustrates and reflects the experiences of thousands of women and girls around the world, as well as the reflections and lessons learned by the young activists about FGM. This comic is therefore a call for awareness and action, in the hope of contributing to a future free of violence and discrimination for all women and girls.
This campaign is part of the CHAT Plus Changing Attitude Plus project, co-organised by FAS and the Wassu Foundation, which through communication and prevention campaigns, also carried out in Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands and Portugal, young agents of change seek to end FGM both locally and at European level.
You can follow the campaign on the Fundació Autònoma Solidària's social networks and, moreover, you can visit the exhibition of the comic that will be on display at the UAB Exhibition Hall (Àgora building, Plaça Cívica) starting on 18 June.