GAMCOTRAP
The Gambia Committee Against Harmful Traditional Practices (GAMCOTRAP) seeks to eliminate harmful traditional practices that contribute to the abuse of women and girl children’s human rights and reproductive health. • Create awareness of the effects of harmful traditional practices on the health of girl children and women; in particular Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), nutritional taboos, HIV and AIDS, early marriages and wife inheritance. • Promote positive practices that empower female sexuality. • Sensitise and lobby decision makers about socio-cultural practices that are harmful to the health of girl children. • Influence policies to promote and protect women and children’s rights. We look after our funds by producing quarterly financial reports and practicing yearly auditing. We have receivedfinancial management and on the job training by the EU funded Non State Actors Strengthening Programme to manage our funds effectively and efficiently. We are organised by having an 11 member board that are selected by the National Assembly to serve a four year term. • We have resident community based facilitators who continuously monitor our projects and we produce quarterly Monitoring and Evaluation reports. • We hold regular team meetings and have an Annual General Meeting to exchange information and ideas. We engage with government • GAMCOTRAP holds sensitisations with government officials to seek government commitment to the eradication of FGM. We ensure a participatory approach whereby activities are planned and implemented with government officials such as governors, chiefs, National Assembly Members and women councillors. • GAMCOTRAP’s intervention through campaigning and sensitisations has contributed to The Gambia Reproductive Health Policy and government legislation on the Rights of the Child by creating awareness. Our donors are UNFPA, US Embassy, European Union, the Women’s Bureau, the Inter-African Committee and Equality Now. CONTACT US GAMCOTRAP Address: Plot no. 41, Kanifing Institutional Area, Kanifing Municipal Area (situated opposite Sheikh Zayed Regional Eye Clinic, Serrekunda Hospital, Kanifing) Tel: (+220) 4399 569 Fax: 00220 4399 568 Email: [email protected] Website: www.gamcotrap.gm |
The Cluster Approach has registered immense success in the Upper and Central Region of The Gambia and has led to the abandonment of FGM by 351 communities including 60 circumcisers in December, 2009. Cluster communities are characterised by a shared geographical location, a high level of socialisation and their own Circumciser and Traditional Birth Attendant. By targeting specific clusters GAMCOTRAP has been able to develop a long standing relationship with the communities we work with. The trust developed over the years has encouraged the traditional structures of the communitiesto open up the “secret society” of FGM in The Gambia. This is the result of over 20 years of advocacy at the grassroots level. The cluster approach has helped GAMCOTRAP to strategically implement project activities in communities. We have a high success rate of getting the communities in the clusters to reach a consensus to abandon FGM through public declaration. “We claim that FGM is an obligation for Muslims to be clean. Others said that it is honour for men but those promoting the practice should be aware that women are suffering in silence.” Amie Bayo (Participant in GAMCOTRAP FGM training, 2011) Our cluster approach has been successfully used this year to create a space for women to have a voice and be heard in their communities. We are running a Training and Information Campaign to Eliminate Harmful Traditional Practices through “Rights Education” which is funded by the European Union’s Non State Actors Strengthening Programme. We have been running three day training programmes and group work sessions for communities in the Central River Region, North. These programmes focus on educating women, Alkalo’s and circumcisers to empower them to have a voice in denouncing the harmful practice of FGM and to speak out against it. The participants of the training realised that FGM is a violation of the bodily integrity and dignity of women. They were moved by the facts and evidence of ill health resulting from FGM and agreed unanimously that the practise had to stop. The participants are now actively calling for a law against FGM. As a result of the training Pa Ebou Nije of Kaur decided not to allow his daughter to undergo FGM: “I am so grateful to GAMCOTRAP, when I heard about the campaign to eradicate FGM I was against it and swore to take my daughter to be circumcised. Now that I have seen the negative effects of the practice, I just cannot see my daughter going through such pain and ill health.” Pa EbouNjie (Participant in GAMCOTRAP FGM training, 2011) |