AIDOS: collaborating with the media and using videos to fight FGM

On the 23rd of September, AIDOS – in cooperation with the news agency Dire - held a training session addressed to Italian journalists on how to report on gender-based violence, including FGM, using non-sexist and non-stigmatising language and providing survivors with the possibility to have their voices be heard.

In October, AIDOS held a capacity building training with organisations from five West African countries: Burkina Faso, Guinea Conakry, Mali, Mauritania and Senegal. In the following months, the trained organisations will conduct sensitisation activities using the video “De Retour au pays”, that was produced by a group of activists during the previous phase of the “Building Bridges between Africa and Europe to tackle FGM” project, supported by the UNFPA/UNICEF Joint Program on FGM. They will also implement monitoring and evaluation activities in order to collect information on gaps and needs on FGM, challenges and lessons learned in addressing the subject; the effectiveness of the video; the claimed intention of the target audience to take/or not take action to promote FGM abandonment or to concretely address the issue amongst family and peers.

In October, another video produced by AIDOS, “Against All Odds” will be screened at the VisuElles Film Festival in Ottawa, whose aim is to celebrate and promote women in films.