Listening to African Voices - FPZ

three items from the domain “Traditions”, two items fromthe domain “Loss” and three items from “Values”. The scoresobtained in each domains were counted together to determinethe total score determining acculturation.The questionnaire templates for men and women are displayedin annex 8.5 and 8.6.3.3. Implementation of the field studyAfter the five days of intense study preparation, the interviewersstarted conducting key informant interviews fora period of 16 days. Weekly meetings to discuss progressas well as difficulties and challenges were held throughoutthe period of data collection. During these meetings, theinterviewers had the opportunity to share their experiencesand to mitigate the strong emotional burden of their workthat accumulated from listening to testimonies of despairand suffering or through the repeated encounter with harshand negative reactions from the participants. They were alsoinvited to come for individual meetings with the researchconsultant for emotional support at any time.On September 7, 2010 another training and preparationmeeting took place with all interviewers to train them onthe conducting of structured interviews and to discuss andadjust the questionnaire templates. The phase of collectingquantitative data started after the session and continueduntil October 31st.In order to put the study participants at ease during theinterview and to obtain high quality data, the interviewerswere able to spend up to several hours with potentialparticipants to prepare the interview and to establish anatmosphere of mutual trust. The interviews were conductedin a language chosen by the interviewee (including diverselocal languages).3.3.1. Collection of the qualitative dataWe explored different sources for the identification of keyinformants: the network of the interviewer team, Africanclubs and associations, counselling and intercultural centresas well as contacts of the BSG. For the interviews with healthpersonnel, we contacted gynaecologists working in neighbourhoodswith a high proportion of immigrants. The interviewersalso tried to approach health personnel of Africanorigin assuming that people prefer to be treated by someoneof the same cultural background. When selecting keyinformants, the interviewers targeted a diversity of persons(representatives of all practicing countries) and approachedinformants from different sectors: health personnel, teachers,lawyers, religious leaders, government officials, youngmothers and fathers, activists, youth and students. They alsoaimed to identify participants of different age groups and ofboth sexes.For each conducted interview the interviewers submitted acover page which included socio-demographic informationand either an audio file of the interview or a written report.3.3.2. Collection of the quantitative dataDue to limited time and resources, Plan Germany had torestrict the number of countries to be included in the phaseof quantitative data collection. As it had not been possible torecruit interviewers from Egypt or to establish valuable contactsin the Egyptian communities during the first phase ofthe data collection, the sample was narrowed to immigrantsfrom countries located in Sub-Saharan Africa. If the immigrantcommunity of a country in Sub-Saharan Africa wasvery small and impossible to reach, again it was not takeninto consideration. This was the case for immigrants fromthe following countries: Mauritania, Democratic Republic ofCongo, Central African Republic and Chad. Countries outsideAfrica where FGM/C is known to be practices were also notpart of the research (Indonesia or Yemen, for example).For the quantitative survey, we aimed to identify statisticallyrepresentative sample sizes from the three countries with thelargest immigrant population (Ghana, Togo and Nigeria). Weused a confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of5% to calculate the sample sizes. 5The immigrant communities of the remaining Sub-Saharancountries are much smaller, ranging from 12 persons (Somalia)to 483 persons (Cameroon). Reaching representativesamples within these small populations was not consideredfeasible as it would have demanded reaching the majorityof the population. For the Guinean female immigrantpopulation (56 women), it would have meant, for instance,to approach 49 of the 56 women. Hence, the decision wasmade to interview as many persons as possible and to aimat reaching about 25% of the women and 25% of the menof the immigrant population of each country. Special effortswere employed to reach high-prevalence countries (e.g.Guinea, Gambia and Ethiopia) and to approach communitieswhere the qualitative interviews had shown the need forfurther investigation (Nigeria, Togo).3.3.2.1. SamplingAs we had no means of locating the study population, wecould not carry out a random household sampling. We thereforeopted for a non-probability survey incorporating threestrategies:5 Of Sub-Saharan countries practicing FGM/C.16Listening to African Voices