AkiDwA
The Challenge
AkiDwA's Changing Attitudes (Chat) Plus project, co-funded by the EU, aims to eradicate Female Genital Mutilation by raising awareness and engaging young people through a compelling film, a targeted social media campaign, influencer partnerships, and a strategic launch event, all executed within an €8,000 budget.
This AkiDwa campaign, co-funded by the EU, aims to transform societal attitudes towards Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) by mobilising young people as key advocates for its eradication across Europe.
Objectives:
Raise awareness about the prevalence and impact of FGM among those supporting and working with communities affected.
Educate and engage community leaders, empowering them to advocate against FGM.
Engage a younger audience to empower change and understanding within their demographic.
Foster a supportive environment for women and girls affected by FGM.
Influence policy and promote systemic change to eliminate FGM.
Understanding the nature of FGM as a human rights violation and form of gender violence, AkiDwA approached We the People with a modest budget to create a marketing campaign. The objective was to produce an engaging video that would resonate widely and build awareness about FGM's impact in Ireland.
The Approach
To get the biggest impact with the budget available we proposed a single piece of creative to show, not tell, our audience about the impact of FGM. Through careful consultation with the client and survivors we created a story based on a ‘life in a minute’ concept, showing four key stages of a survivor’s life where FGM has affected her, as a child at the airport before the procedure, in school at a health education class, as a young adult confiding in a friend and at the GPs while pregnant. The film takes the viewer on a journey from the innocence of childhood until the survivor herself is pregnant with a daughter and concerned about the welfare of her own child.
Working collaboratively with the Chat Plus project lead at AkiDwA we utilised every contact and resource available, engaging non-professional actors and finding suitable free locations, props and volunteer crew to maximise our tiny budget without losing impact on the final result.
We the People provided post-production in-house, editing and colour grading the film, and created sound design to add texture. We produced a bespoke piece of music to underpin the voiceover, composed to accentuate the journey from innocence through despair, but ending on a hopeful note for the future.
The film not only underpins the other great work done during the Chat Plus project by the dedicated AkiDwA staff and Young Changemakers, it provides AkiDwA with an evergreen asset to explain the real and lasting impact of FGM on women and girls in Ireland and the rest of the world.
As we were working with volunteer non-professional actors for the film, we decided to narrate the piece with a voiceover so we didn’t need our cast to engage in dialogue. We commissioned an up-and-coming poet to compose the narration.
Heal the Scars is a powerful spoken word piece written by an Irish FGM survivor. The impact of her words and her delivery, written and spoken from the heart and drawing on her own experience, adds a deep and genuine meaning to the piece that is unquantifiably powerful.
The Results
This campaign had a very small budget and no funds allocated for media spend. All promotion of the film relied entirely on organic reach.
Within two weeks of going live, the film had 4,280 plays on Instagram. This was a significant achievement, especially considering Akidwa’s Instagram account has just over 2,000 followers. The film reached 2,678 accounts, with 81.6% of these being non-followers, meaning it connected with new audiences and spread our message even further.
The results were strengthened by the support of influencers and partners who shared the content on their personal accounts. This support network was crucial in amplifying our message. Notable influencers like Emer O’Neill, Amanda Adé, Destiny Ayo Vaughan, Pamela Uba, Dr Lucy Michael lent their voices and platforms to the cause. Partners such as the National Women’s Council of Ireland, Irish Family Planning Association, and the End FGM European Network also shared the video, helping to further broaden the reach.
The involvement of high-profile influencers and respected organisations not only increased visibility but also added credibility. Their endorsement shows a collective stand against FGM, making our campaign's impact even more profound.
The engagement from these posts was overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the importance and urgency of our message. Each share, like, and comment has already helped raise awareness about female genital mutilation (FGM) and the vital work Akidwa is doing to combat it.
The press release was picked up by two national media outlets: The Irish Examiner and The Journal. The Irish Examiner has a print reach of 379,000, and an average of 3 million unique visitors per month. The Journal has 430,000 daily readers with an average of 5 million unique visitors per month.
Across the board, AkiDwA are already observing an increase in reach and engagement from non-followers, which is essential for mobilisation and awareness efforts. Within these non-followers, AkiDwA is reaching a younger age demographic compared to previous campaigns, which was a key objective for the film.