Campaigns of Gams Belgium

We invite you to travel back in time with our various campaigns to raise awareness and mobilise against female genital mutilation.

Together, let’s make our voices heard, share our messages and join forces to create a world where every woman and girl can live freely and enjoy her rights.

Holiday awareness campaign 

I talk about it in class, and you?

As summer 2024 approaches, GAMS Belgium has launched its new pre-vacation campaign. This year, the goal was to raise awareness in schools and among their staff, who are on the front lines with children throughout the school year. Through a series of interactive webinars, educational and PMS staff members were able to receive training and discover practical tools, like the “detectometer“, to better understand and handle high-risk situations.

On May 7th, a roundtable was held at ULB, providing a platform to discuss challenges and perspectives. Relive the highlights of this inspiring discussion by reading our article (in french).

Watch our campaign video.

Halimata Fofana

For its 2023 annual campaign, GAMS Belgium welcomed Halimata Fofana, a committed author, as its patron. The programme included literary encounters, film debates, activities in a Liège school and webinars.

Make it a trip to remember

In June 2022, just a few weeks before the start of the holidays, GAMS Belgium is relaunching a new pre-holiday campaign on social networks as part of our associative project: the FGM collective, in partnership with AWSA-be, Oasis Belgium and the FPS family planning centre in Liège. Our shared aim is to reach as many people as possible affected by female genital mutilation, and thus prevent female circumcision when people return home.

Through a series of photos and texts discussed in focus groups with the people concerned, GAMS wants to show that with the right preparation, you can leave with a light heart and make the journey a pleasant memory.

No excision for my daughter

In 2008, GAMS Belgium and 21 partners launched the first national “No excision for my daughter” campaign to raise awareness among families and professionals of the risk of excision when returning home on holiday.

At a press conference on 18 June 2008, the then Federal Minister for Health, Ms Onkelinx, announced the four major resolutions that were to mark the Belgian landscape in the fight against FGM:

• To carry out a prevalence study to assess the scale of the problem
• To draw up a guideline for professionals
• Distribute the guide to all hospitals and provide training for professionals
• Evaluate the relevance of reimbursing clitoral reconstruction.
• Make this a trip to remember

International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation

February 6

Every year, GAMS Belgium is actively involved in the International Day of Zero Tolerance against Female Genital Mutilation. The organisation plays a crucial role in raising awareness, organising events and advocating concrete policies and measures to eradicate this harmful practice.

My Life behind the Masks

On March 8th 2022, on the occasion of the International Women’s Rights Day, GAMS Belgium shares the result of its latest project: My life behind Masks. With this project, we wanted to give women the opportunity to be heard, and to say “ENOUGH”!

Unfortunately during the pandemic, we observed an increase of anguish and anxiety among the women we were following. Isolated and no longer able to carry out their income-generating activities, the GAMS Belgium Liège branch launched an initiative to give the women concerned the opportunity to express themselves about the issue. The team set up a series of focus groups to discuss the situations experienced during the pandemic, as well as several co-construction workshops to produce a video. From the writing of the script, the translation and recording of the voices, to the shooting of the video, the women were able to translate their feelings by themselves.

Watch the video outcome of this powerful exercise in empowerment available in 10 languages: French, English, Amharic, Pular, Afar, Arabic, Somali, Soussou, Tigrinya and Malinke

Excision, my way of saying NO

In 2013, a travelling exhibition entitled « Female genital mutilation, my way of saying no» launched at the initiative of the association GAMS Belgium and backed by the authorities. It illustrates the portraits of the men and women of Europe (Belgium, France, United Kingdom) and Africa (Senegal, Djibouti, Guinea) who address their resistance against female circumcision. Since then, this exhibition circulates in various public places (stations, parliaments, community centers, etc) in order to make the politicians, health and education professionals, as well as all citizens, European or African more aware of the modes of resistance against FGM.