15 results for author: Lisa Keepen

Conference ‘Prevent & protect’ & Femmage for the founder of GAMS Belgium

On February 6th, on the international day of the fight against Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), GAMS Belgium had the honour to hold a conference in the Belgian Senate. Most of the invitees were there for the first time, admiring the high ceilings with paintings on the walls, the red carpet and were honoured to be on the guestlist because the seats were limited. Stéphanie d’Hose, chairwoman of the Senate welcomed us all and pointed out to look at the portraits behind us. "There are too few women hanging among all these men; yet one woman stands out : Maria Theresa of Austria. She was a mother of 16 children. What mother can combine a successful ...

New awareness-raising Tools to invite women who have undergone genital mutilation to come to the multidisciplinary centres

More than 23,000 girls and women who have undergone genital mutilation live in Belgium. To help them, two multidisciplinary hospital centres have been created in our country. Located at the Sint- Pieter Hospital in Brussels (CeMAViE centre) and at the UZGent (Vrouwenkliniek), they provide holistic care for women and girls who have undergone female genital mutilation: medical, surgical, sexological and psychological care. This care is fully reimbursed by the social security, including clitoral reconstruction. Ahead of the International Day of the fight against Female Genital Mutilation (6 February), a national campaign is being launched by GAMS Belgium ...

GAMS’ team wishes for 2023!

Each of us at GAMS Belgium would like to thank you for your support and commitment to our organisation. The year 2022 was rich in actions, trainings and partnerships. We wish our partners and allies to maintain their fervor and determination in the fight that unites us. We wish strength and courage to women affected by Female Genital Mutilation, and health, happiness and prosperity for all. The GAMS Belgium team wishes you all the best for this new year to come. We’d like to share some of our dreams with you.   Khadidiatou Diallo, Founder GAMS Belgium For 2023, I dream that the team can continue to save girls from FGM and that ...

A letter from the chairwoman, Diariou

Since 2011, GAMS Belgium has been accompanying pregnant women during their pregnancy with workshops preparing for birth, as well as post-natal sessions with the babies. These workshops allow women to ask questions, to obtain reliable information to make informed choices, to share their knowledge, to create a space of support between them... The life paths and female genital mutilation can provoke important fears related to the childbirth. These meetings provide an opportunity to name these fears, to listen to other women who have already given birth, to deconstruct certain beliefs, to strengthen women's own capacities, and to encourage them to ask for ...

CASTS OF VULVA’s, an instrument towards female empowerment

From across the Atlantic, independent researcher Magaly Pirotte of SEX-ED + visited GAMS Belgium for two days and made ten casts of vulvas of women who had undergone female genital mutilation as part of an exchange project funded by Wallonie-Bruxelles International-Québec. The Centre Médical d'Aide aux Victimes de l'Excision (CeMAViE) at CHU Saint Pierre, GAMS Belgium and SEX-ED + were able to work together to produce reproductions of external genitalia. The aim? To create an encyclopaedia and tools to better understand the realities of women affected by female genital mutilation in order to better support them. This is happening for the very first ...

The new president visits the Walloon branches

Two Wednesday mornings, two train journeys and Diariou Sow. Follow us on our visit with our new president, in Namur and in Liège, to meet the teams based in Wallonia. 9.45 am, 12 October 2022, Central Station, Diariou Sow boards the train for Namur. The new president of GAMS Belgium was keen to talk to our Walloon staff and to discuss the issue of welcoming women in our branches. Year after year, GAMS Belgium has continued to expand. Today, our team has three temporary offices in Flanders (Ghent, Antwerp and Leuven) and two permanent offices in Liège and Namur. On the train, we discuss the next events by GAMS Belgium, our professional ...

Working with cultural diversity for frontline workers at care centres after sexual violence in Belgium

GAMS Belgium was invited by IEFH (Institute for the Equality of Women and Men) on two training days on the 13th and the 18th of October for hospital staff at Care Centres after Sexual Violence across the country. As a national coordinator, the Institute is responsible for the launch and expansion of Care Centres after Sexual Violence in Belgium. It is in this capacity they organise training courses with all kinds of experts, to provide staff with a very necessary basis to perform their function, such as intercultural work with interpreters etc. Fabienne Richard and Jessica Tatout, both from GAMS Belgium, each devoted an hour in French and in Dutch to ...

Discover our new prevalence study on FGM in Belgium

This concerns more than 35,000 girls and women in Belgium! Yesterday, our director, Fabienne Richard, a midwife with a PhD in Public Health, and Dominique Dubourg, a demographer at the Walloon Agency for Health, Welfare, Disability and Families (AVIQ) presented a new study on the prevalence of female genital mutilation in Belgium. The research was commissioned by Sarah Schlitz, Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Equal Opportunities and Diversity, and Franck Vandenbroucke, Minister for Public Health. Here is a review of the figures and recommendations presented at the press conference. This presentation was, to our great delight, widely covered by ...

Retrospective of 20 years of international cooperation with Fabienne Richard – GAMS Belgium

The holidays are coming to an end. So at GAMS Belgium, we wanted to continue taking you on a journey through time and space. Let's start with this photo from our boxes which perfectly illustrates this article. It shows Fabienne Richard and Khadidiatou Diallo in Cairo, in 2009, at the general assembly of the Inter African Committee (CIAF). For some time now, our director and founder have been travelling the world aiming to abolish female genital mutilation. In Senegal, Guinea, Portugal and Canada, our association has participated in and contributed to several initiatives outside our borders over the past 20 years. Ready to learn more about our intern...

20 years of community work – an interview with Mariama Bah

You may have seen her on TV, heard her on the radio or read about her in the newspapers. This summer, we interviewed Mariama Bah. A committed woman concerned about female genital mutilation. Shw has been in charge of the Community Voices pool since January 2022. Her struggle, however, dates back much longer. Together, we will take stock of these first months of work at GAMS Belgium, the 10 years of the programme and we look back on part of her personal journey. What is your connection with GAMS Belgium? My history with GAMS Belgium is a long one. I first came to know GAMS Belgium as an organisation that helped me to save my daughters from ...