Becca Dash FGM

151 Digital Champions now trained to report FGM and GBV in their communities

Tarime digital champion training

By Herry Kasunga

We recently shared news of the training of 59 Digital Champions in Butiama District, Tanzania. In total in June, we managed to train 151 new Digital Champions, made up of both male and female local volunteers who are fighting FGM and GBV. This training was made possible with support from UNFPA Tanzania.

Masanga Center managed to recruit the Digital champions in Tarime District meaning each village will have one Digital Champion. They will be responsible for educating girls and women in their villages about the impact of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

The Digital champions were given Smartphones for the purpose of using apps such as ODK and maps.me. ODK is used for reporting GBV cases happening in their villages, with the data then submitted to Masanga Center and the Gender Desk Police for investigation and rescue of girls, if required.

Digital Champions presented with new smartphones

Maps.me is used for mapping their village’s features such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, schools, Police stations, Churches, and safe places around their villages. We also formed a WhatsApp group for all attendees, as a way of the Digital Champions communicating with one another.

In attendance for the training were Tarime District Social Welfare and Tarime Gender Desk Police which also trained the Digital champions on GBV and shared their experiences. There were also churches leaders in attendance.

The training was conducted over four days (22nd – 25th June 2021) and we separated the attendees into two groups with each group attending for two days.

In Tarime, Digital Champions are made up of a mix of both men and women. This allows men to participate in fighting against GBV and FGM and support their women and girls. Traditionally, FGM is conducted to ensure a higher dowry for the family when a daughter is married, so educating both the men and women in families ensures the practice is more likely to be discontinued. Men are increasingly turning their backs on FGM and we have seen cases of fathers and uncles removing their children temporarily from the imminent risk of FGM. There is, of course, a lot more work to be done.

If you’re interested in becoming a Crowd2Map virtual volunteer – contributing from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, you can find out more about our work here.

Becca Dash FGM

New Digital Champions recruited and trained, with funding from UNFPA Tanzania

By Herry Kasunga

In June, Hope for Girls and Women Tanzania and Masanga Center recruited 59 Digital champions in Butiama District, Tanzania. Each village has one Digital Champion who will educate girls and women in their communities about the impact of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).

Digital Champions receiving training

The Digital Champions were given smartphones, with access to apps to support their work to promote gender equality in their communities. The phone apps include:

  • ODK for reporting GBV cases happening in their villages, this data is then submitted to Hope and Gender Desk Police for investigation and rescue of girls at risk;
  • Maps.me for mapping features such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, schools, police stations, churches and safe places around their villages.

The event was attended by Butiama District Social Welfare, with Butiama Gender Desk Police contributing to training the Digital champions on GBV, whilst also sharing their own experiences.

The Training was conducted over two days in June 2021. Day one covered the purpose of Digital Champions and expectation of their work, an introduction to and types of GBV, and FGM.

For many of the Digital Champions, it was their first time holding a smartphone, so we showed them how to:

  • switch the phone on/off
  • make a call
  • send texts/SMS
  • view and interact with apps
Digital Champions received smartphones

Day 2 included a recap of day one’s training in the morning, followed by training on the ODK tool, collating the required information and how to send this to Hope. We went through all of the questions available in the forms to ensure the Digital Champions were clear on appropriate and helpful responses.

We also demonstrated how to use WhatsApp for communication and support, in case there are any challenges.  A WhatsApp group was set up on the day, allowing all of the Digital Champions to get support from their peers.

At the end of the training, all of the digital champions signed a contract confirming receipt of their smartphones and that they are ready to work as Digital champions and help fight GBV and FGM in their villages.

Special thanks to UNFPA Tanzania, through their funding, this training was made possible.

Becca Dash FGM

Cutter in Northern Tanzania is sentenced to 10 years in prison

Police Officer Sijali (left) and Mgesi (right), the cutter
Police Officer Sijali (left) and Mgesi (right), the cutter

In April 2021, an important prosecution took place of a cutter from Kitarungu Village, Tanzania. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to pay 1,000,000 TZS (c. $430USD / €350) to the victim. A parent was also jailed for 5 years for their involvement in arranging for the cutting to take place.

The victim was rescued and taken into the protective environment of Hope for Girls and Women, where she was found to require hospital care, due to her injuries.

FGM was criminalised in Tanzania in 1998 but still happens, particularly in rural areas where it is easier to conduct the practice away from authorities. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to schools being closed which in turn opened a longer window for girls to ‘recover’ away from the eyes of the education system. School holidays will often be exploited and these periods have come to be known as ‘cutting seasons’.

During these ‘cutting seasons’, our maps become even more integral to rescue teams who need to be able to reach victims and those at risk as quickly as possible. Find out more about our work, and get involved here.

Hear more about the impact of COVID-19 on work to end FGM, by watching a webinar here.

Becca Dash FGM

Against my will: A collaborative effort to end gender inequality

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) has published its State of the World Population 2020 paper. Against my will: Defying the practices that harm women and girls and undermine equality, has contributions from many important figures focused on improving female prospects globally through a combination of determination and ongoing action.

State of the world population 2020 cover

Rhobi Samwelly tells her harrowing story of experiencing near fatal female genital mutilation and seeing it kill her friend, and how this galvanised the founding of our partner organisation, Hope for Girls and Women. Rhobi is featured from page 67 of the report.
There is a wealth of important information about gender inequality within the document.  We were therefore keen to share it as a wider reading resource for those campaigning for an end to FGM and those interested in learning more about this and other practices that aim to prohibit the rights of women.

The full report can be downloaded via the UNFPA site from the button below:

Take me to the report
Becca Dash FGM

Improving the impact of data from our partner, Hope for Girls and Women

‘Female Genital Mutilation’ and ‘data visualisation’ might not be two terms that you would immediately put together. However on June 1st, the Viz5 team and makeovermonday.co.uk did just that. Their global community of data enthusiasts were challenged to help communicate some of Hope for Girls and Women’s critical stats through a range of different visualisation techniques. 

Created by: Priya Padham

Data can, at times, be quite impenetrable and dry. Being able to identify a logical flow and narrative using data visualisation techniques on a webpage, presentation or report, can help the information become more digestible and intuitive for the audience. According to t-sciences.com,  ‘the human brain processes images 60,000 times faster than text, and 90 percent of information transmitted to the brain is visual.’ 

Created by: Liam Spencer

As part of the monthly #Viz5 data visualisation challenge, the team featured data from Hope in an effort to support our advocacy work and raise awareness of the fight to end FGM. There were so many great data visualisations produced! These were reviewed by Eva Murray, Technology Evangelist & Tableau Zen Master at Exasol and Seth Cochran, Founder & CEO at OpFistula.org.

  • You can see and hear the feedback they provided here.
  • The shortlisted visualisations are also available to view here.

Hope has a relationship with the Viz5 team through our association with the Tanzania Development Trust and Crowd2map. They have supported with our data collection and mapping of Tanzania, and were keen to use their platform to help us drive awareness around the challenges we face with FGM and the support we provide through the safe houses. Their passion comes across in the feedback session – we look forward to collaborating again soon!

To read more about the outstanding efforts and this important collaboration, please find the Viz5 article here.

Gabor FGM

16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence in Tanzania

Rhobi and the other FGM activists and community mappers in Mara have been very busy as part of 16 days of activism.  This is the 3rd year they have participated in this global event.

They have been promoting their work protecting girls in many villages around Serengeti, in preparation for the upcoming cutting season which will start next week.  You can follow their progress on their Facebook page here.   Their hard work has meant many cutters have now stopped mutilating girls, and the tide is turning.  However they are currently sheltering 178 girls and the numbers are expected to rise substantially next week when the schools have closed, yesterday alone they received the names of 215 girls at risk who need rescuing, so December will be extremely challenging.  If you would like to help them you can do so here.

They are also getting ready to implement a project called WomenConnect in the new year which will train women leaders in every village of Serengeti district in using mobile phone content to improve livelihoods and access to health and education information.

Janet Chapman FGM

FGM season started early

Anticipated for December, we have received word that the FGM season has started already in the Mara region of Tanzania. We are rushing to map two tasks that will help Mugumu Safe House workers to identify & reach villages at risk:

http://tasks.hotosm.org/project/1788

http://tasks.hotosm.org/project/2261

Please help & invite all your friends to do mapping!

All you need is a PC and a mouse. Here’s an excellent instructional video, and detailed PDF instructions on how to get started.

Remember – every bit of land mapped makes a difference. 

Here’s what we know about the affected girls so far:
map-girls-nov-13
nov-13-info
Janet Chapman FGM

“We are using the map to reach places where we’ve never reached before” – note from Mugumu Safe House!

Received a note from Wambura Kisika, the legal officer at the Mugumu Safe House! Here it is, in his own words, why our mapping is helping their crucial effort to fight FGM:

On our side we are doing fine at the safe house. The map is very important because most of the villages where the girls come from are remote areas, there no passable ways, no bridges for the rivers, settlements are scattered and some areas with some dangerous animals, so as can remember we are working with volunteers who informs us about the incidents in villages, during the cutting season when we are informed of the incident we have to know the road to that particular place which is passable, the volunteers also should know the road where we can meet and the girls also have to know the road to the safe house.
Currently we using the map to reach some place where we never reached before, educating them about the effects of FGM and making  demonstration for those who would like to run to the safe house during the cutting season we are also thinking to use the map distance to plan the fuel budget for collecting some girls who will fail to reach the safe house and during returning them back home…

– Wambura Kisika, Mugumu Safe House

Gabor FGM

Crunching to map Mara before next FGM season: you can help

Find yourself bored on a rainy summer night? How about some OSM mapping to end FGM ?

We’ve been mapping the are around Mugumu in Tanzania, where female genital mutilation (FGM) – the tradition that threatens the life and health of women – is still prevalent.

With the help of our online volunteers and an army of recent mapathon mappers, our task on HOT tasking manager, which covers a large proportion of Mara region, is already 65% done!

Screenshot 2016-07-09 20.02.06.png

LET’S GET TO 100% BEFORE THE NEXT CUTTING SEASON STARTS IN DECEMBER.

Rhobi Samwelly, the founder of Mugumu Safe House & Vocational Training Center explains why mapping helps her cause:

YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Before we started mapping, there were 1, 522 km of roads in the region of Mara. 

Now there are 7,005 km.

Before we began, there were 2, 807 buildings in the area of Mara.

Now there are 47,480.

Screenshot 2016-07-09 20.17.40

ALL THANKS TO A BUNCH OF VOLUNTEERS WITH A LAPTOP & A MOUSE! 

Yep, that’s all you need – and your efforts may help protect thousands of girls from FGM next winter.

LET’S END FGM THROUGH MAPPING TOGETHER!