Ending FGM/C: Alternative Rites of Passage
As this year comes to a close, we wanted to share with you an update on Amref’s efforts to end FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting) in Africa. We also want to take this opportunity to say thank you to Amref's wonderful supporters - it is your support that helps to make projects like this possible.
Amref has worked closely with Maasai communities across Kenya and Tanzania for over fifty years, collaboratively developing lasting solutions to health issues. Today, young women and girls in these communities are changing attitudes towards FGM/C, leading conversations about Alternative Rites of Passage (ARP), securing a brighter future for the next generation of girls.
Why is FGM/C practised?
FGM/C is practised worldwide, for cultural, social, or religious reasons. For the Maasai people, FGM/C – or ‘the cut’ as it’s commonly known – represents a rite of passage for young girls, marking their transition into adulthood.
Aside from the physical and psychological trauma associated with FGM/C, the practice also adversely affects girls’ choices. When a girl is cut, she is considered ready for marriage and motherhood; when she is married, the family receives a dowry. That’s why girls that undergo the cut are often made to leave education, enter into forced early/child marriage, and experience teenage pregnancy.
Lillian Taiyana
"When I was six years old, my elder sister got cut. It was so painful for her. She bled for almost two months and was later married off. She wasn’t able to complete her primary school education. So, I tried to imagine, this is what I am going to have to go through."
Student at Maasai Mara University and participant in Amref’s Alternative Rites of Passage programme.
Since Amref’s ARP work began in 2009,
Amref's Approach
Attempts to forcefully put a stop to FGM/C often end up causing more harm than good. Criminalisation fails to address the reasons why communities practice - pushing families to perform the cut in secret, often crossing borders to where FGM/C is legal.
In each project Amref runs, community engagement and leadership are the foundations of lasting change. Being community-led means that the community designs and develops projects themselves, as they know better than anyone their specific health needs, practices and cultural traditions.
Through this approach, the community itself owns the collective and coordinated choice to abandon FGM/C, as an investment in the future of its girls and families.
Spotlight: Alternative Rites of Passage programme in Kajiado County, Kenya
Amref has partnered with communities across Kajiado county, Kenya, to put an end to FGM/C (Female Genital Mutilation or Cutting) - securing a brighter future for young girls.
Ending FGM/C in Kajiado
With funding from the Amref UK office, we have been able to reach whole communities in Kajiado with sanitation, hygiene and sexual & reproductive health education alongside the building of infrastructure that improves access to clean water to the community at large - supporting 1,500 girls so far to avoid the cut, continue their education, and shape their own futures.
Grace Majiakusi, Officer for the programme in Kajiado, explains the project as: "an Amref model that provides us with the platform and opportunity to listen to the community".
The Process
Inter-generational community dialogue is crucial to the success of ARP projects - including elders, young boys and girls, parents, religious leaders and ‘cutters’ - in conversations around how the cut affects young girls' choices, the correlation between the practice and early/forced marriage and teenage pregnancy, and alternatives to FGM/C.
Through this approach, the community itself owns the collective and coordinated choice to abandon FGM/C, as an investment in the future of its girls and families.
Pictured: Maasai men celebrating at an ARP ceremony, Tanzania (c) Adrian Mgaya
The Ceremony
The communities’ role in providing consent, identifying un-cut girls, contributing time and resources and ultimately planning and partaking in the Alternative Rites of Passage ceremony – is vital to programme success. Seeing that FGM/C can end without destroying community tradition strengthens confidence that through Amref’s community-led model for change, communities aren’t abandoning culture but respecting and upholding it.
The Alternative Rites of Passage Ceremony looks different for every community - as each community creates a ceremony that accurately reflects their individuality, tradition and culture, both respecting the past, and looking forward to the future. Community engagement and leadership throughout the ARP process and ceremony is essential, as it is this participation that brings a "sense of ownership and sustainability to community efforts to end FGM/C".
The impact of ending FGM/C
Anne, secondary school student, told Amref UK’s CEO about how the sessions have helped her realise her dreams:
“They used to say that without FGM you are not a woman like others. But when I came here my mind expanded. Without FGM you can go far. You can achieve your dreams. I want to be a lawyer, to defend rights and to represent my community. I’m really grateful for this project”.
"I am now in university pursuing my dream.”
Lillian shared how the project impacted her:
“Luckily for me, I was able to learn about Amref’s ARP programme. I convinced my parents and they allowed me to join and complete the programme. This allowed me to continue with my education and I am now in university pursuing my dream.”
What does FGM/C have to do with water?
Being community-led means addressing the health needs of the community as identified by them. Following conversations with women in Kajiado about the barriers they face to good health, it was clear that access to water, (or the lack of it), played a significant role in women’s daily lives.
In Kajiado, women’s responsibilities in the home closely intersect with the need for clean water. Keeping the home running means travelling long distances daily to collect water for drinking, washing clothes and cooking. Women also need access to clean water for reproductive health – to prevent infection during pregnancy and menstruation.
But access to clean water closer to home doesn’t just mean better health. It gives women more time for themselves in daily life, helping to redress the gender imbalance of the domestic work burden, while opening up opportunities to discuss the role of water in typically ‘taboo’ subjects such as sexual and reproductive health and rights. In more ways than one, easy access to clean water empowers young women to understand and promote sexual and reproductive health, as well as securing better health for the community at scale.
By integrating water management with end FGM/C education, the project ties ending FGM/C to community needs, meaning that the whole community is invested in implementing and maintaining these changes.
With the knowledge, skills and understanding reached through the Alternative Rites of Passage project, communities are talking about the dangers of FGM/C - making the collective and coordinated choice to abandon the cut, for good.
It is your support that makes projects like this possible. Please consider giving a gift this Christmas to help more communities access clean water, sexual health education and ultimately, decide to end their practice of FGM/C.
Thank you so much for your support.
Donate to help end FGM/C
Give a gift today to support more communities abandon FGM/C - securing a brighter future for young girls
could support a girl to graduate through an Alternative Rite of Passage ceremony
could train two village leaders on alternatives to FGM/C
could fund three school sessions on FGM/C, providing a safe space for children to learn about their bodies and rights
All images © Jeroen Van Loon, Joost Bastmeijer, Adrian Mgaya, Steve Kagia, and Zulani TV for Amref Health Africa.