Discover GAMS Belgium pre-holiday summer campaign 2026!
Our member GAMS Belgium just released their 2026 pre summer holiday campaign, a crucial time for girls at risk of female genital mutilation who might be undergoing it during the summer period.
Since 1996, GAMS Belgium has been fighting for the abolition of female genital mutilation in Belgium and around the world. It's also a founding member of the End FGM European Network. Their 2026 prevention campaign spotlights the voices of young people and the vital role they play in raising awareness about FGM. With the summer holidays just around the corner, a period considered particularly risky for young girls, the campaign, led by the Youth Activists of GAMS Belgium, seeks to raise awareness about the risks of FGM through prevention messages while helping to break the silence surrounding the practice.
From the youth to the youth:
The campaign is characterised by a participatory approach. It was conceived and developed by the group Youth Activists of Gams Belgium, in collaboration with the communications agency PAUSE. The youth voices took part in every single step: from ideation, message definition to scriptwriting, and visual design.
The campaign is based on a one-minute video available in French, English, and Dutch. In it, young people remind viewers that holidays should be a time of joy, discovery, and reunions, not a period of danger and violence. Their central message is powerful: girls must be protected, and all forms of FGM must be rejected.
Several testimonies from young people anchor the core message of the campaign. They reveal the difficulties in talking about FGM, the fear of the consequences, but also the possibility of changing attitudes within families. GAMS Belgium emphasises that prevention remains essential and must involve all voices, including those of young people.
Moreover, in collaboration with GAMS Belgium and other European partners, we launched the End FGM E-Campus, a free multilingual e learning platform designed to strengthen the capacity of professionals across sectors to identify, prevent, and respond to cases of female genital mutilation. The platform provides specialised training and practical tools for professionals working in areas such as healthcare, education, social services, asylum, law enforcement, and child protection, with the aim of better protecting girls and supporting survivors across Europe.
