KAPCHORWA – Penlope (not real name), a 27-year-old resident of Kapchorwa District, Uganda, has lived with the devastating consequences of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) for over a decade. At the age of 15, she was forced to undergo FGM and subsequently married off by her parents. Today, she deeply regrets the decision.
“I lost my independence, my natural joy, and my gentleness,” Penlope explained, her voice laced with sadness. “I was closed off, angry, and empty. If I hadn’t undergone FGM, I might be a nurse, an accountant, or a teacher today. I would have been a professional.”
Penlope’s story is a stark reminder of the consequences of FGM. In the Sebei sub-regions, including Kapchorwa, Kween, and Bukwo districts, and Karamoja’s Amudat, Nakapiripirit, and Moroto, many girls are forced to undergo FGM during school holidays. This brutal practice not only denies girls their right to education but also sets them on a path towards early marriage and pregnancy.
According to Law and Advocacy for Women in Uganda (LAW-Uganda), up to 35% of girls in Sebei undergo FGM. This practice is considered a rite of passage into womanhood, but it has disastrous consequences for girls and women.
FGM is just one of the many forms of violence that women and girls face in Sebei and Karamoja. According to the Uganda Demographic and Health Survey (UDHS) 2016, 56% of women in Karamoja have experienced physical or sexual violence, while 45% of women in Sebei have experienced similar forms of violence.
In addition, the UDHS 2016 reports that 24% of women in Karamoja and 17% of women in Sebei have experienced forced marriage. The survey also reveals that 15% of women in Karamoja and 12% of women in Sebei have experienced FGM.
FGM has brought untold disaster upon Penlope’s community, denying girls and women dignity, abusing their rights, and interfering with their development. Penlope is now a peasant farmer living in Kapchorwa, a district where FGM remains prevalent.
As Penlope reflects on her past, she emphasizes the importance of education and the need to protect girls from FGM. “When a girl is forced to undergo FGM, she loses her future,” she said. “It’s essential that we educate our communities about the dangers of FGM and work towards creating a safer, more supportive environment for girls to thrive.”
In the Sebei, FGM remains a pervasive and harmful practice. However, Naguru Teenage Information and Health Centre (NTIHC), with support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), is working tirelessly to combat this practice.
Last week, the Centre organized a football tournament in Kapchorwa, which brought together young people from different districts. The tournament was more than just a sporting event – it was a platform to create awareness about the dangers of FGM.
Derrick Okoth, the coordinator of the FGM project at Naguru Teenage Center, explained that the centre uses sports as a mobilization tool to engage young people in the fight against FGM. “We mobilize them through sports and we impact them as they play football, we pass messages against gender-based violence, particularly ending child marriage and FGM.”
Naguru Teenage Center’s project has been focusing on survivor-based advocacy, where they engage with FGM survivors and use their stories as powerful advocacy tools. “Our project this year, most of our strategies have been aligning to survivor-based advocacy where we go down in the communities and the sub-counties and we engage different FGM survivors,” Derrick said. “We get stories from them and we use these stories as very very powerful advocacy tools, they share with us experience what they went through after mutilation.”
In addition to working with survivors, the’s project also involves community integration, where they engage with local community leaders and involve them in the fight against FGM. “We engage them in dialogue, they tell us what their role in ending FGM is and through dialoguing we have been able to notice some very crucial points or impacts that have been also learning tools for us,” Derrick explained.
Harriet Aseko, the district community development officer at Kapchorwa District Local Government, said the district and sub-region at large is predominantly a patriarchal society, with deep-seated values and norms that perpetuate harmful practices like FGM.
“Kapchorwa is predominantly a patriarchal society, and so there are values and norms that the community must stand by in order to qualify to be in this community or to be married in this community or to be respected in this community,” Aseko explained.
FGM, in particular, is a practice that is deeply ingrained in the community. “FGM is a harmful practice. It’s a violation of human rights. However, the community takes it as a very serious rite of passage,” Aseko said. “It’s a passage from being a girl to being a woman. So it’s a process of being a girl to being a woman in terms of adulthood.”
The consequences of FGM are severe and long-lasting, and Aseko is determined to educate her community about the dangers of this practice. “The moment you are circumcised or you are cut, now you are ready for marriage. You are ready to be called a woman. You are ready to be called clean,” she noted, highlighting the misconceptions that surround FGM.
