Join us on Wednesday, March 4th, as the AVA Webinar Series presents Female Genital Mutilation: Awareness, Prevention, Action, featuring Alisa Tukkimäki and Warda Warsame from End FGM Canada Network.
Wednesday, March 4th, 2026
12 – 1:30pm MST
Female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) is a form of gender-based violence, child abuse, and a serious human rights violation that affects thousands of women and girls in Canada. This training provides professionals with a clear, evidence-based understanding of FGM/C within the Canadian context, including risk factors, legal obligations, and the realities faced by survivors.
Participants will learn how to recognize signs, respond safely and ethically, fulfill duty-to-report requirements, and provide culturally sensitive, trauma-informed, survivor-centred support. Designed for service providers across sectors, this session equips participants with practical tools to protect girls at risk and support survivors with dignity, safety, and care.
About the Speakers
Alisa Tukkimäki is passionate about social and economic justice and working collaboratively to dismantle systems of oppression. Alisa is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP) with a Master’s in International Community Development from the University of Calgary. She has over 20 years of experience as a community developer in Alberta co-creating and managing local and international projects in project design, implementation and evaluation. With a focus on social justice and human rights, Alisa has worked in the fields of homelessness and poverty reduction, gender-based violence, and most notably counter-human trafficking. In 2022 Alisa became the National Director of End Female Genital Mutilation Network Canada.
Warda Warsame is based in Toronto, Ontario, and has over a decade of experience in community development and settlement services. She is a doula and an advocate for reproductive and gender justice, supporting marginalized and diverse populations, particularly newcomers to Canada, through system navigation that centres equity and culturally responsive care. Her work focuses on anti-FGM advocacy, gender-based violence prevention, and social equity. Warda holds an undergraduate degree in English and a Master of Arts in Humanities, with research interests in gender studies, racialization, and social stratification.