BAFROW’s model is based on a holistic/integrated approach centrally rooted in the concept of the “Well Woman”. A main feature of BAFROW’s approach is that its activities are designed in the context of civic empowerment, people’s participation and ownership. It is a process of transparency and accountability which involves communities taking charge in auditing their own systems and practices as well as their roles, responsibilities, obligations and rights as leaders and citizens in relation to an identified problem which they want to address. Hence, issues of culture and tradition, gender equality, human rights and social development as well as consultative processes, participation and decision making processes are discussed in a given context and are mainstreamed in the day-to-day empowerment activities and social services that are provided to them. 

It is within this context that BAFROW has been able to implement for over 13 years (1996 -2009) activities that include raising awareness on the health implications of FGM and other harmful traditional practices, empowering communities through functional education and providing livelihood opportunities for circumcisers; involving and engaging religious and traditional leaders in the campaign to end FGM; mobilizing youth to advocate for the elimination of the practice through BAFROW Youth Advocacy Group; providing services in case management of health complications resulting from FGM; and supporting the implementation of an alternative rites of passage for girls which is commonly known as “Initiation without Mutilation”.

A notable landmark in BAFROW’s work on FGM is the transformation of circumcisers into health mobilizers through intensive training course and skills upgrading workshops organized yearly. The training courses include sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR) information, environmental health, contra-FGM related advocacy skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, women and girls rights and the linkages between these issues. The women who participated in these trainings were engaged in expanding awareness creation activities on these issues in their communities and environs, and advocating for alternative rites of passage for girls.

Closely linked to the passage rites was an action-oriented study on FGMC, another milestone of BAFROW. The Longitudinal Study on Children at Risk of FGM registered girl children from birth to 6 years old into the “girls’ protection program”. These children were monitored through the program and their parents sensitized and empowered through a functional education program to ensure the girls were not cut.

The passage rites program also included the development of a Curriculum for the alternative rites of passage and training of converted circumcisers and their assistants on its use. An essential part of the program was to create a culture of entrepreneurship in these women to discourage them from reverting to their FGM-related income generating practice.

These activities ultimately resulted in the creation of BAFROW’s Association of Ex-Circumcisers, which includes converted circumcisers and their assistants, and the first major BAFROW-supported alternative rites of passage ceremony conducted six years after the start of the study. The passage rites have become an institution of empowerment for girls.