Meeting the Women of Kilonito in the Fight Against FGM

It’s one thing to have conversations about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and another to meet and interact with the communities and the people that have been working to eliminate it. I travelled to Kilonito in Kajiado County with Amref Health Africa to see first-hand the work being done to eliminate FGM.

FGM, just like circumcision for boys, is rooted in tradition and shares many of the same aspects of transitioning from childhood to adulthood. The fact that it is rooted in tradition makes it difficult to eradicate. 3 million girls undergo FGM each year in Africa. It is a violation of the human rights of girls and women and has no health benefits and can cause severe bleeding, infection, infertility and death. FGM also limits girls’ life chances as cutting marks the initiation of girls into ‘womanhood’ and exposes them to child early and forced marriages and teenage pregnancies.

Amref is currently working with local communities to eradicate FGM through the Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP) approach – to fight FGM by engaging families and communities so that they can make a collective and coordinated choice to abandon the practice.

My heroes tend to be ordinary people. It’s easy to be brave when you have power or wealth to give you some protection, but it’s so much harder when you do not.  The whole community from the youth to the women to the elders are engaged in the work. I spoke to 4 women about their experiences with FGM and ARP. It was extremely difficult to listen to the stories of the FGM survivors, and I was  awed by their bravery and their commitment to making sure that this did not happen to any other girl in their community.

Abigail

She easily stands out – confident and talkative. She is 17 years old and shares about her dreams to complete her high school education and join university to study Finance. She is Miss Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP), a title she is earned because of her passion and commitment to eradicating FGM in her community. She says that it has been a challenge to stay in school and that a number of her classmates have dropped out because they underwent FGM, and either got married off or fell pregnant. FGM is a right of passage and it’s difficult for a girl who’s gone through it to stay in school as she is told that she is now a woman and she should focus on women things, which school is not a part of. She is an advocate of girls’ education and is proud to be a part of the efforts to eradicate FGM in her community.

Maseu

She reminds me of my late grandmother – regal and warm. She likes to be called cucu, so that is what I call her. She is a reformed FGM cutter, which caught me by surprise as I am not sure what I expected one to look like. Maseu doesn’t remember how many girls she cut through the decades, but she regrets it as she now knows the negative effects of FGM thanks to the work Amref is doing through the Alternative Rite of Passage programme and has vowed that her granddaughters will not go through the same. Thankfully in Maseu’s experience, she never had any casualties. This is not the case for everyone unfortunately, as many girls have lost their lives by bleeding out after undergoing FGM. She is thankful that she has reformed and doing her part to eradicate FGM from her community.

Naomi

Naomi underwent the cut at 13 years old. It was traumatic for her as she was an unwilling participant and had to be held down during the procedure. She had her first child at 15 and experienced complications during labour. It was a difficult time for her as her parents were unwilling to take her to Kajiado Hospital out of fear that they would be arrested. Thankfully, she was taken to hospital and attended to. She is now 21 and has since been married and has her 3^rd child on the way. She is very protective of her younger sisters who she says will not undergo FGM under her watch.

Joyce

Joyce underwent the cut when she was 13 years old. She fell seriously ill right after and was bedridden for over a month. She went back to school after she recovered but dropped out soon after and fell pregnant. Joyce also had a difficult labour and had to have an emergency CS. She has since gone back to complete her high school education and gone through Alternative Right of Passage training with Amref. She is similarly overprotective of her younger sisters and is glad that her parents have reformed and abandoned FGM.

December is cutting season and  many girls are in danger of having their lives cut short due to FGM. To help stop this, make a donation to M-Pesa Paybill number 890750, Account name – ENDFGM. Follow the conversation on Twitter on @Amref_Kenya and on the hashtags #CuttingSeason #ChangeHerStory #EndFGM