For my undergraduate honors thesis, I am working with Sahiyo and Asian’s Women’s Shelter (AWS) to better understand support services for survivors of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). I recently presented a poster about my research, and am excited to share a bit about my project!
Before I get into the details of my project, I wanted to introduce myself a bit more: My name is Sarrah, and I am currently a senior undergraduate at Stanford University studying human biology and computer science. I first started working with Sahiyo as a Development Intern, then transitioned to Development Assistant, and finally, Development Coordinator. Being a part of the Development team has motivated the research I am doing now, and I am really excited to be able to highlight and support Sahiyo’s work through my project.
Sahiyo is currently working with AWS, a domestic violence organization in San Francisco, by training the AWS employees and crisis line counselors on the basics of FGM/C, as well as how to best support survivors of the practice. This is rooted in a recommendation by the United Nations’ for FGM/C organizations to collaborate with other GBV organizations in order to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 5.3: to completely eliminate FGM/C by the year 2030. Collaboration allows for sharing of best practices, more coordinated efforts, expanded networks, and a better use of time, knowledge, and funds.
The role of my project is to evaluate this collaboration between Sahiyo and AWS, by trying to answer the question: What are the benefits and challenges of integrating FGM/C and domestic violence support services?
Thus far, Sahiyo has held three 2-hour training sessions on FGM/C with AWS staff members and volunteers, where they incorporated Voices to End FGM/C videos as part of the trainings and did role play exercises to practice supporting an FGM/C survivor. At the end of August, Asian Women’s Shelter opened their crisis hotline and services to survivors of FGM/C. I will be conducting my research in November through December, through interviews with AWS employees and volunteers. I will then analyze the data by finding commonalities across the interviews to answer my question. My results will inform future work, not only between Sahiyo and AWS, but also between other GBV organizations.
I am eager to share my findings with the Sahiyo community. Be on the lookout for the research results early next year!
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