Medical students forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights – MedSIN Sudan

Name of the activity: Medical students forum on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights

Country/NMO: MedSIN Sudan

Program: Gender-Based Violence

Contact information: contact [email protected] to get in touch with the Activity Coordinator

Type of the activity: First-time Activity

Category: Education

Focus area: Female Genital Mutilation, Women Empowerment, Domestic Violence, Honor Killing, Sexual Exploitation and Rape, Early and Forced Marriages, All GBV types 

Sustainable Development Goals addressed: SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)

Problem statement:

lack of data on gender-related issues in Sudan prevents us from including them all,but any Sudanese individual can confirm from what they observe from their daily lives that the percentages and number of survivors of GBV including CM and FGM are unacceptably huge.A limited percentage of medical students understand the human rights abuse aspect of FGM, and how this relates to medical ethics.Lack of family planning services which serves as an impenetrable barrier to women’s rights 

Target groups:

• Medical students

Beneficiaries:

• Youth
• Women

Objectives:

– Increase awareness of60 medical students about concerns that may face them when facing GBV victims, the reflections to those concerns,their essential roles in responding to VAW and GBV and how their patients perceive them,and understood barriers and concerns that prevent GBV victims from seeking help and reporting the violence and how to respond to concerns bythe end of the forum

– Increase participation of 60 medical students programs implementation to eliminate GBV and advocate for Gender Equality in a culturally sensitive way putting in application the learned tools and methodologies by the end of the forum. 

– The knowledge of 60 medical students will be increased about the most recent update onFGM, CM laws as one of the country priority,by the end of the forum

– Increase recognition of 60 medical students about the efforts that are made by the WHO, other NGOs and the Ministry of Health in Family Planning field and the advocacy efforts the made

Indicators of Success:

1. At least 50 participants were able to conduct or even participate in a proper way on trainings, sessions and workshops tackling the same issues and country priorities in their LMOs by the end of the forum 
2. At least 50 of the participants were aware of SRHR country’s situation in terms of ratification of laws, reproductive health policy mapping and SRH system gaps throughout the 3 days forum. 
3. At least 50 of the participants had known the aid need to be provided to gender based violence survivors and at least 25 of them will be able effectively and proficiently practice gathering medico-legal evidence of sexual violence. 
4. At least 50 participants had known the FGM and Child Marriage consequences and the laws pertaining to Sudan, 
5. At least 50 participants had realized the importance of access to family planning methods by the end of the Forum 

Note: these IOS were fully met, based on the participants and facilitators evaluation

Methodology:

Timeline:-Contacting WHO for collaboration:10/6-The Coordinator and WHO representatives meetings:21/6 to8/7-Call for participants opened:4th of July-Call closes and pre-evaluation sent:8th/ 9th of July-First day of the forum:10/7- Second day:11/7-Third day:12/7-Post-evaluation form sent: 13/7•The forum took place on the 10,11,12July on GrandHolidayVillaHotel.Seakers at day1started led discussing the differences between gender and sex,thenwent to discuss GBVtypes and sexual violence specifically,WHOprotocol,LIVESapproach,WHOguidelines.The day started10:00am and ended4:30pm.•Day2tackled FGM,laws,situation in Sudan,child marriage and lastly family planning.Started11:00am and ended 5:00pm•Day3tackled the complement of FP session and its services in Sudan completing the topic of day2.Lastly,the part of experience share to the attendees.The speakers werefrom WHO,Former SCORApositions holders.There was a lot of great participation from the attendees discussing situations in their communities

Plans for evaluation:

Forum participants’ Evaluation: 

➢ Objective-based evaluation (fulfilling at least 70% of the IOSs)

➢ Questionnaires and written assessment: conducted in person, and by mails

➢ End activities reports

For Facilitators: 

➢ Developed semi-structured interviews ensuring that the objectives

of each activity is covered by the facilitators or not to ensure the monitoring and evaluation of the impact.

➢ A useful website that we had used to easily monitor and evaluate activities that done by the participants after attending the forum and 

we will in working with the forum’s participants during the follow up plan( which consist of Social Norms Change Training and Community outreaches to all Sudan States with the WHO. 

https://monday.com/lp/projectmanagement/bundle 

External collaborations:

The World Health Organization