By RUTH KONCHELLAH | DIRECTOR
In the Masai community, a typical young girl grows up without understanding of her own sexuality. Before long, at age of nine years old, she is caught unaware by being put through FGM and soon after married off. The How-and-Why of the procedure is not revealed to her in a clear and concise manner. It is only during periods of isolation after actual cutting off of the innocent young girl’s genitals that some restricted information is given to her in the form of ...”what the society expects from her.” The operation is mostly conducted by a familiar face of a grandmother in the presence of women from her homestead, leaving her without doubts that the operation is a good thing, for her own good.The reasons they are given include the girls will get married from within the community and increases male sexual pleasure. That the girl will stay clean and with the assurance of fertility and that child birth will be easy.If a girl is not circumcised she is isolated by her peers and and ridiculed. So a girl may give in to getting the cut so that she is fit to belong to this group of “women.” It is believed that a “real Maasai girl” must undergo the ceremony in order to truly belong, to get married and have children. A girl who is rejected by her friends suffers from low self esteem.
Given the right information about the harmfulness of the practice a girl will understand why she does not have to go through it. They will understand that if they are not circumcised they will still be able to get children among other issues pertaining to the myths and misconceptions surrounding FGM. Only then will uncircumcised girls understand that the circumcised girls are brainwashed to believe they are superior.Cherish Others would like to request for more people to donate to this project so that girls are liberated from this practice.
Our sincere thanks to those who have supported us and enabled us to do the community based training, pay school fees and conduct and Alternative rite of passage for girls.
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