FIGHTING HARMFUL PRACTICES

Girls and women living in communities where female genital mutilation (FGM) is prevalent in Uganda - Karamoja and Sebei sub-regions - have started to form vigilante groups to help in the fight against the brutal cultural practice.

Girls from Amudat, Nakapiripirit, Kween, Bukwo and Kapchorwa told New Vision they were not going to take part in this year's annual mutilation.

Through their leadership, the team observes that they have lost relatives, parents, friends and neighbours to the cultural vice and do not want a repeat of the same.

“To do that, we are strongly relying on the power of numbers in our enlightened and mobilized fellow girls and women, who have resolved to oppose FGM,” said Sylvia Cherop, one of the team leaders.

“This is an even year and we shall stand strong and resist anyone, including the FGM cutters, who will come hunting for us."

FGM, like traditional male circumcision in the neighbouring Bugisu sub-region, is conducted during even years.

Also related: Sebei elders draft alternative rite of passage

Young women are using safety in numbers to combat FGM in Sebei and Karamoja sub-regions

'Agreed to disagree'

This year, however, the practice that usually intensifies in the month of December is set to face record-high resistance from these communities of committed girls and women. 

They deploy their socially networked groups and peers to guard themselves against the local FGM surgeons. The members report the cutters to state agencies and other relevant authorities, who thereafter take reasonable action as per law. 

“We formed groups in our communities and through those groups as uncircumcised girls and women, we have agreed to disagree with anyone who will want to force us into FGM," said Gloria Chebet of Binyinyi sub-county in Kween district.

“These practices are harmful and deadly. Our friends and relatives have lost lives to FGM and it will take our proactive action today to stop it. 

“This is a year for circumcision and that is why we have intensified our vigilance as women and girls living in FGM-practicing communities," she said.

These groups draw their strength and confidence from the backing from anti-FGM actors and players such as ActionAid, Centre for Health Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), security and district local government commitment to an FGM-free Uganda.

Convincing stakeholders

Loice Bella Anyakun is a 20-year-old resident of Namalu in Nakapiripirit district. She credits empowering sensitization trainings they attended upon invite by ActionAid, which is currently running a project aimed at protecting girls and women during this FGM season.

“They (ActionAid) have continuously trained us, young women, on how to report and avoid being mutilated," she said.

“Another crucial skill we are deploying, which we learnt from these capacity building and sensitization seminars, is how to convince our resistant parents, surgeons and elders on the dangers of FGM."

They believe that the strategy is working because since they started to deploy it this year (2022), the number of circumcised girls has reportedly drastically dropped in the two sub-regions.

Also related: A push for alternatives to end FGM

Ugandan girls are teaming up with women to shield thmselves against FGM cutters

FGM fuelling child marriages

Samuel Francis Ononge is ActionAid’s project officer for the UNFPA-funded programme, which aims at combating FGM and child marriages in the aforementioned districts.

He is optimistic that the initiative is viable.

“FGM is not only a dangerous and harmful practice, but it is also a driving factor of child marriages and teenage pregnancies," sayd Ononge.

“Girls as young as 15 years of age are forced into marriage by their parents shortly after mutilation because they are believed to have become mature. This is wrong."

He stressed that the high teenage pregnancy and child marriage numbers in the sub-regions of Karamoja and Sebei are majorly being fuelled by FGM.   
As a result, this has contributed to a high number of school dropouts at primary and secondary school level.  

Ononge also observed the changing dynamics, which include women being mutilated during childbirth.

“Expectant mothers have now become another target for these surgeons. They compel mothers to give birth at home and while helping them deliver, they go ahead to circumcise these unsuspecting women,” he said.

Cross-border cultural tendency is another outlet defiant communities have devised, especially at the Uganda-Kenya porous entry points, where prospective girls are taken to either side in order to be circumcised.

The perpetrators believe that they will not be easily caught by the strict laws and policies in place in both countries once they do it in the so-called 'no man’s land'.

Girls and women who revealed they were victims of cross-border FGM are now championing the fight against the harmful practice

'Consistent community-driven efforts'

Gloria Chelangat, a renowned anti-FGM activist, commended the new approach by the vigilante girls and women and strongly believes the move will bring an ultimate end to the persistent pockets of mutilation.

“The local communities’ willingness and commitment towards working for a society that practices safe and healthy alternative rites of passage for our girls is vital and I am happy we are starting to realize this.

“Our task now is to ensure that these community-driven efforts are sustainably consistent,” said Chelangat.

She wants government and actors in the FGM space to accelerate appropriate investment towards the end of the vice. 

Gloria Chelangat and some of the girls who are part of the village awareness teams to fight FGM

FGM in numbers

FGM involves removal of some or all of the external female genitalia.

Due to vibrant political will, the brutal cultural practice had dropped to a mere 0.3 per cent (0.3%) in Uganda, according to the Uganda Demographic Health Survey (UDHS) report of 2016.

However, due to the recently relaxed coronavirus national lockdown, the 2021 report by the aforementioned firm stated that the vice had increased by four per cent (4%) at national level.

But the prevalence stands at 27% in Karamoja and Sebei sub-regions.

Currently, in Karamoja, Moroto district has the highest female cutting prevalence at 52%, followed by Nakapiripirit (49%), Amudat (42%). 

Bukwo leads in Sebei with 27.7%, Kween at 21% and Kapchorwa at 13%.

Elders both in Sebei and Karamoja told New Vision the introduction of an alternative rites of passage that the government is considering would end FGM once and for all.

Government’s commitment                                                          

On April 20 this year (2022), Government announced that it was in advanced stages of finding alternative rites of passage for communities practicing FGM.

Hellen Asamo, the State Minister in the Ministry of Gender, Labour and Social Development in charge of disability affairs, made the announcement.

Without divulging details of the proposed alternatives, she assured that whatever Government would come up with would help address the problem of FGM.

“FGM is one of the worst demonization and forms of gender equality, as it takes a women’s dignity," she said then.

“Government is determined to ensure an end to FGM practice by 2030.

“The [gender] ministry has always committed to strengthening the fight against the horrifying cultural practice. There is hope and that is what matters,” said Asamo.

Currently, consultative meetings with elders, NGOs, cutters, and local and religious leaders are underway in order to come up with suitable and flexible options of heritage cultural practices in place of FGM.