18/06/2026
FGM Awareness Training and Engagement Session
On Monday 15 June, amidst the chaos and uncertainty affecting our communities, Happy Women’s Group had planned to hold our FGM Awareness Training face to face. Due to the unpredictable circumstances, we made the difficult decision to move the session online, with limited spaces mainly for HWG volunteers and close partners who are directly linked to our work.
The purpose of this training is to open up much-needed conversations about Female Ge***al Mutilation in Northern Ireland, the challenges faced by victims and survivors, and the difference between what people may think they know and the facts. This is an opportunity to listen, learn, and engage with victims and survivors of FGM who are empowered and ready to raise awareness on an issue that is still not spoken about enough.
Our main aim is to become better educated, so that we can provide the right support, safe spaces, and culturally tailored services for women and girls affected by FGM. We want to create spaces where FGM can be discussed openly, safely, and respectfully, while standing in solidarity against all forms of harm and working together to protect women and girls.
This training is also about ensuring that women seeking protection in Northern Ireland are recognised, heard, and supported through the right channels. FGM is an issue that Northern Ireland must become more acquainted with, especially as more ethnic minority women and families settle here and need services that understand their experiences.
The training providers bring over 40 years of experience in supporting women and girls who are victims and survivors of FGM. Their work is BAME-led, survivor-informed, and rooted in lived experience. They also work alongside safeguarding teams and men who support the anti-FGM campaign, recognising that ending FGM requires whole-community awareness, protection, and action.
We hope to make this training available to as many people as possible, especially organisations, volunteers, professionals, and community leaders working with ethnic minority communities, victims, survivors, women seeking protection, and girls at risk.
Our next FGM Awareness Training and Engagement Session will take place on Monday 29th June 2026 at Mornington Community Centre, from 9.30am to 4.45pm.
A big massive thank you to our funders Community Foundation for Northern Ireland and for Supporting this great initiative 🩷
FGM Awareness Training with engagement, creating safe spaces to learn, listen, support survivors and to protect women and girls.
