Dr. Salome Mbugua:

Education, whether it is at primary, secondary or third level, is key to the whole area of DSGBV, not only FGM. We think that even from the early learning years, for example, when students are in crèche, there should be some way of introducing these kind of situations. There was a tragic case involving a 16-year-old girl who kept saying that she was engaged to her fiancé. She told her friends in school, but they could not understand how a 16-year-old girl would have a fiancé. Two years later, she left and was married somewhere in Dubai. Her friends later came to understand that she had been forced into an arranged marriage. She was living in Cork. The children did not know. It is important that children understand these issues so that they can talk to the teachers. In the case to which I referred, it was a kind of a secret that the girls could not tell. We have also tried to approach schools to see if there is a way we can include FGM as part of sex education. It has to be done in a very sensitive way, because we do not want to traumatise the students. FGM is very traumatising. We have tried to engage on this issue at the educational level. To be honest, it is a very foreign issue and we welcome the fact that Ireland is open to even discuss it. Engaging with schools has been very challenging. However, we are trying to create discussions with teachers in the hope that they can then move it forward.