By Natalie Robi | Project Lead
In October, November and December we visited 250 girls across 40 villages in Kuria who were at risk of FGM between the ages of 8 to 18 years.
This intervention was based on the increase in urgent calls reporting FGM incidents a couple of weeks prior. Previously in communities we work, FGM on girls is customarily carried out during school holidays or the "Cutting season", with the sudden surge in the cases of FGM, Child Marriage and Child Pregnancies it linked to the crisis brought about by the pandemic like the closure of schools. Our communities have been using the prolonged lockdown period as an opportunity to cut a massive number of girls as we experienced in September, October and November and December.
The support from you our community enabled the response to girls' urgent needs at risk of FGM, link survivors to care and mitigate the impacts COVID-19.
We conducted our home visits at the peak of the "Cutting Period" risking our lives to reach the girls at of FGM as during this time the community is very hostile. During the home visits, we spoke to girls (depending on the proximity of the homes brought girls together in small groups) and had conversations on the harm of FGM and possible ways of getting help. There were instances where girls broke down and cried since before we got there, they didn't know where to run to, we saw "lesos" and razor blades that the girls had bought to go for the cut in a day or two; these girls we left immediately with them with the support of the chief & police. We also spoke to the parents, caregivers and guardians. In these villages, we also visited survivors who were sick due to infected wounds where we were allowed and linked them to services with a condition hey will not get arrested or harm us. Immediately after our visits, there were drastic declines in the reports of FGM from these villages.
Thank you so much for helping us reach girls at risk of FGM. Thank you for believing in us. Thank you for you support always.
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