Barwaaqo Voluntary Organization (BVO)

Barwaaqo Voluntary Organization (BVO) is a non-political, non-governmental and non-profit organization founded in 1996 by a committed gender balanced group in Somaliland.

The project with ISF aims to empower the target communities to identify and mitigate violence against women and girls (VAWG), focusing on FGM and early marriage, but also addressing partner violence and non-partner sexual violence. To achieve this, local traditional and religious leaders with authority on moral issues will be sensitized about VAWG and their role in mitigating it. They will be invited to speak in community dialogues with women, men, and youth living in the target communities.

BVO will also establish grassroot level anti-FGM and anti-VAWG committees who will carry out house to house visits in their villages, convincing parents to stop FGM and early marriage. In all project sites, BVO will establish school clubs where girls and boys are educated on bodily integrity and negative effects of FGM and early marriage. They are also invited to produce and participate in dramas that aim to sensitize other community members.

The project organizes women to SHGs and trains them in numeracy, literacy, basic business skills, and tailoring. The project promotes women’s decision-making role at home through community and household discussions.

The main development processes in 2024 are as follows:

• Through school clubs, BVO will educate girls and boys about the harmful effects of FGM and early marriage. The Anti-VAWG Committee will conduct community dialogues to promote zero tolerance towards FGM. Additionally, 12 volunteers from the Anti-VAWG Committee will visit households in the target community, with each volunteer reaching 30 families each quarter, totalling over 2000 parents.

• 80 traditional and religious leaders will be educated on FGM’s harmful effects on girls and encouraged to talk against the practice. The sensitized leaders are also invited to do radio talk shows to educate the community about the Islamic stance on FGM.

• The project will train 80 women in tailoring and give them sewing equipment, including 20 sewing machines. The project will support product development, business planning and marketing of reusable menstrual pads. The 80 women will also gain knowledge on the negative effects of FGM and other forms of VAWG.

• In Ceel and Ceel bilicile communities, the project will train additional 20 women entrepreneurs (a total of 40 women) in literacy, numeracy and basic business skills. To prevent partner violence against women, sometimes accelerated after women empowerment, the project will engage husbands in roundtable discussions on the importance of women’s economic role for the family resilience.