Day 4 3/9

 Today the group woke up around 10am and enjoyed breakfast together before heading down to a conference room in the hotel. Once we got to the conference room we listened intently to a presentation by a human rights and social justice organization called “save a girl save a generation”. This organization was founded in 2007 and is fighting to stop the generational abuse endured by girls and women who go through forced marriages and genital mutilation. The two presenters gave us extensive information on the different programs they implement throughout Spain and Kenya to put an end to genital mutilation and forced marriages. The group learned much on these issues including but not limited to the four different types of genital mutilation, how 230 million women alive today have been affected, and how there is no legitimate medical purpose for the procedure. We went on to learn many different factors that go into pressuring a woman into a forced marriage. The six factors we focused on were gender bias, geography, family, and social values, coercion, economic reasons, and harmful cultural practices. Not only do they go around to different schools throughout the community to inform people about these topics, they also intervene to prevent as well as help the girls and women survive and thrive after being subject to gender based violence. This organization gives these women many tools and aid such as six months of sex education, access to mental health treatment, etc. After they wrapped up their presentation, we enjoyed our lunch with our presenters, asking any questions we may have had. The group had a lively discussion about the comparison of gender based violence in Spain versus in the US. Later that afternoon we headed out in smaller groups to shop in places such as the Plaza Mayor which is known as Madrid‘s vibrant main square. Finally to wrap up the day many of us enjoyed dinner at a local restaurant called “El Ray de Los Tacos”.

It was super interesting learning about both issues of female genital mutilation and forced marriages, as those two topics are not really big topics in the US. I personally was unaware of the prevalence of the two issues both in Spain and parts of Africa such as Kenya. It makes me want to do my own research about those issues in relation to the US, as it is not a topic that is discussed widely, at least to my knowledge. It made me extremely emotional to hear that some girls had to go through those things at such a young age. It was also crazy to me to hear that older members of the community, typically females, were the ones performing the gender mutilation. Another surprisingly statistic was that Sudan had 67% of female genital mutilation practices performed by a medical professional, as that is a staggeringly high number. I definitely think that the public in the US should be more educated on this important and dire issue, as it is affecting a large amount of women across the world and we are not talking about it enough.

-Grace, Trinity, & Kylie