Female Genital Mutilation - World Health Organization

_____ Teaching community about the need to
eliminate FGM.
_____ Being honest in answering clients questions.
_____ Seeing that community acts on professionals
advise.
_____ Helping to decrease a client’s anxiety in
relation to FGM complications.
_____ Making sure that community is involved in
decision-making regarding FGM.
_____ Following legal mandates regarding the
practice of FGM.
_____ Maintaining professional ethics all the time
when dealing with clients who have
undergone FGM.
_____ Being in the forefront of efforts to eliminate
FGM.
2. Examine the way in which you have ranked these
options, and answer the following questions:
– What values can you identify based on your
responses in this exercise?
– How do these values emerge in your behaviour?
Our attitudes, values and beliefs greatly influence
the service we provide to clients and to the community
regarding FGM. If we try to impose our own attitudes
and values on others, it is unlikely we will be effective
in our efforts to eliminate FGM .
Our attitudes, beliefs and values are influenced by
our cultural beliefs, social background, age, gender,
education and other factors in life. We must not
impose them on individual clients or communities.
Better understanding of our own values
as well as those of our clients will help
us, as health professionals, to provide
care that is relevant, of high quality, and
acceptable to individual clients and
communities.
It is worth remembering that:
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
STUDENT MANUAL
● Even in a group of people from similar
backgrounds, with similar educational levels and
professions, there is likely to be a wide range of
attitudes and values.
● If health workers can recognize their own biases
and understand the roots of their own beliefs, they
are more likely to be successful in working with
communities.
● Listening to the community and to clients will give
health workers a better idea of how best to
communicate with them about the dangers of
FGM.
● The best ways to find out what someone’s real
interest are is to talk directly with that person.
We may think that we “see” somebody
clearly but this is often not the case. No
two people perceive things in exactly
the same way.
43
● Values and attitudes are deeply rooted in the
experiences of our lives, and it is not easy to change
them. However, it is important to examine our
values and attitudes and to make conscious
decisions about these which we believe are worth
hanging on to, and those which we feel may no
longer be valid.
● Only when there is dialogue and openness are
people likely to question their beliefs and values
and be prepared to change.