By RUTH KONCHELLAH | DIRECTOR
INTRODUCTION
The Masai woman is faced with multiple challenges caused by women marginalization which include Female Genital Mutilation and child marriages. As soon as a girl attains 11 to 13 years of age she goes through Female Genital Mutilation and married off immediately, most probably, in a polygamous set up. By the age of 15 years, the girl is not only a wife but also a mother.
In view of the aforementioned problems Cherish Others introduced Alternative rite of Passage seminars Program which is conducted every April, August and November in order to change the attitudes of not only the girls themselves but also of their parents so as the whole community may deem fit the need to empower girls and nurture them to acquire skills and knowledge to attain self actualization and benefit the community as a whole.
REGISTERING AND MONITORING GIRLS AT RISK
Registration of girls at risk of going through FGM was conducted both in the office and while on field visits, an exercise which went on throughout October and November 2014. Such field visits entailed giving an emphatic talk on education for the girl and shunning FGM to the girls’ parents so that they could allow the girls to attend seminar. 50 girls were registered to undergo the Alternative Rite of Passage in November. 11 parents declined and even became very hostile towards the mobilisers.
CONDUCTING AN ALTERNATIVE RITES OF PASSAGE CEREMONY
An alternative rites of passage ceremony was organized for 50 girls to provide them with social support and factual information concerning the harmfulness of FGM.
The ceremony involved a 3 days training of facts about FGM and other traditional rites and their harmfulness to the society. The training incorporated the useful messages given to the girls who are circumcised in a traditional ritual, during the isolation period after they are circumcised such as assuming adult roles, prevention of pregnancies before marriage and upholding family stability. Only that this happens without the cutting off of the girls’ genitals.
At the start of seminar all the girls are given opportunity to give a short story about themselves, experiences on FGM and their expectations of the seminar. Sample expectations included:
The topics actually covered in the seminar were as follows:
The participants said that many girls in their community accepted to go through Female Genital Mutilation because they were afraid of not getting husbands when they grew up and that many feared losing their parents’ support if they knew they did not want to go through the ‘cut’. The seminar was very interactive as the girls, asked many questions regarding female genital mutilation and also expressed that they were under pressure from both their peers and parents.
They appreciated the fact Cherish Others Organisation had come to their rescue since some of them were at a ripe age for marriage.
In the evenings the girls watched video shows on HIV/AIDS and life skills.
LESSONS LEARNT
Cherish Others realized that parents were reluctant to allow their children to go for the anti FGM seminars. This, Cherish Others learnt, was because if their girls refused to go through FGM they would not go away and get married and they were not willing/not able to put them through schooling.
CONCLUSION
Cherish Others expresses heartfelt gratitude to The partners of the GlobalGiving who selected and supported our project. The project was able to reach out to 50 girls and all their parents including making follow up visits to 200 homes. This was a commendable achievement for the partnership which aims at changing the attitudes of the community members so that the community can regard the girl child as an equal to the boy child and therefore give her the requisite attention.
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