Tagged as: FGM

Girls fleeing from FGM in Uganda are directed to Safety

Uganda, Kampala – “With no safe houses- schools, girls will be genitally mutilated,” said 21- year old Ruth Chelangat a community mobiliser, who mobilizes girls against female genital mutilation (FGM) in Kwosir sub county in Kween district of Uganda’s largely rural Sebei region.

“You can’t receive protection in the neighborhood during the cutting season,” she stated.

In areas of Uganda where FGM is performed, the “cutting season” usually coincides with school holidays, as it is this year. FGM, which includes damaging or modifying the female genitalia for non-medical reasons, can have a variety of severe health repercussions for girls who are exposed to it, including pain, infections, hemorrhaging, and death.

But when Betty Cheboi, was 22 years old, she implored her parents not to have her cut. They didn’t listen, and she had no safe place to run to. She nearly bled to death from her wounds.

Afterwards, she made her close relatives promise not to cut her younger sisters. For Cheboi, it was the beginning of a lifetime of activism to end FGM.

After receiving training from the Right Here, Right Now II (RHRN II) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), several youth teams in the Karamoja and Sebei regions are spreading the word that girls can find refuge at the safe houses operated in Amudat and Kween districts through, school programs, young people’s safe spaces at health centers, and community outreach.

“this is part of our effort to change negative values, norms and rituals abusing the enjoyment of sexual reproductive health and rights, in addition to young people’s gender justice,” Cheboi said.

However, according to Joseph Cheptegei, Kwosir sub-county Community Development Officer, when a cry for aid comes in, whether from a girl at risk or a concerned community member, identifying the girl can be difficult. This is due to the geography in the Sebei area, extensive unmapped land in Karamoja, and a lack of connectivity, with settlements of up to 5,000 people without plots and never appearing on Google maps.

“We are coming together to widen our network to unite people against FGM from across the Karamoja and Sebei regions,” said Cheptegei.

RHRN II, UNFPA through Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU), has organized the volunteer network’s efforts to teach young people so that activists on the ground can better protect girls since 2016.

Samuel Musani, RHRN II officer in Sebei region says that trained volunteer mobilisers, peer educators and young advocates comb through villages of rural Sebei and Karamoja regions, tracing for girls at risk or threat of FGM. They are then referred to safe houses and schools constructed by Action Aid – Uganda, Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development (MGLSD).

RHU works with government and other private partners like Reach a Hand Uganda (RAHU), Action Aid and Kapchorwa Civil Society Association.

During the 2021, over 2,000 volunteers in over 60 sub counties were trained under the RHRN II and UNFPA programmes by RHU and its partners.

As more and more communities abandon FGM, programming needs to zero in on remaining hotspots, noted Jackson Chekweko, RHU Executive Director.

When the cutting season is complete, most girls return home after two months. Volunteers, community social welfare personnel, and specially trained police engage with families and communities to alter attitudes, a step toward changing the societal norms that maintain FGM.

“We talk to parents,” said Chebot. “We show them that FGM has effects and is illegal in Uganda.”

Girls can return home if their parents promise to honor their requests not to be cut off and to help them in continuing their education. Every three months, the program does a check-in with the girls.

Girls whose families refuse to reconcile are housed in safe houses, where they get therapy and continue their education. Chebot, on the other hand, does not give up attempting to persuade their families to alter their beliefs.

“We are not stopping,” she said. “We keep visiting those families, talking to them so we can have reconciliation.”

While officiating the anti FGM day celebrations in Kapchorwa, on 20th April 2022, Uganda’s State Minister for Gender and Culture Peace Regis Mutuuzo, pledged that the 2010 anti FGM law will be revised to curb the new trends, that aid FGM to be done in countries neighboring Uganda.

Aldon Walukamba G, the author, is the RHU Media Advocacy and Documentation Coordinator.

RHU Mentors Healthcare Providers in Management of Rape and SGBV Survivors

Reproductive Health Uganda (RHU) is equipping health care providers with the clinical management of rape, sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) survivors.

Demeter Margret Namuyobo, RHU Medical Coordinator says after acquiring support from United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), RHU embarked on mentoring health service providers in the clinical management of rape and SGBV survivors in some regions of Uganda.

So far, the districts of Amudat, Abim, Kotido, Kampala and Moroto have benefited from the trainings, because of the urgent need for clinical skills among health care providers, cases of rape, sexual and gender-based violence.

This comes after increasing cases of rape and SGBV were reported from Karamoja, and central regions in 2020, following the onset of the COVID 19 pandemic. According to the Uganda Police Force 2020 crimes report the number of Sex Related Crimes in 2020 rose to 16,144 case compared to 15,638 cases reported in 2019.

Although these areas rank high in cases of rape, violence and defilement, they also practice female genital mutilation (FGM), which a form of gender violence.

Gimono Haddy, a Health care services provider at Loro health Centre II in Amudat district says the knowledge acquired from the RHU training funded by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), will help her serve the community, especially victims of rape and SGBV in Loro parish and the surrounding areas.

“I have acquired skills about how to communicate with rape and SGBV survivors, many of them fear to disclose to us upon coming to the health centre because in Amudat, sex is practiced culturally without consent. They fear to be punished by the elders in the kraals” Gimono says.

Catherine Asio, in charge of Alakas Health Centre II says the knowledge acquired from the RHU – UNFPA training will help her and the team handle swabs taken from survivors carefully before the 72 hours elapse, but also protect them from not getting spoilt.

“we face a challenge of handling virginal swabs taken from survivors of rape and SGBV, but after this training, we can use the specimen collection kit or refer the swabs immediately to the health Centre IV in time for storage” Asio says.

The trainings and other RHU – UNFPA funded activities are going on until December 2021.

Participants who attended the clinical management of rape and SGBV mentorship at Loro Health Centre II