Denounce FGM, Ntagali tells Kapchorwa locals
L-R: The executive director Reproductive Health Uganda, Mr Jackson Chekweko, UNFPA country representative Esperance Fundira, Church of Uganda archbishop Stanley Ntagali during the first marathon in Kapchorwa, aimed at ending Female Genital Mutilation, last Saturday.. PHOTO BY Edgar R. Batte
What you need to know:
Rejection. Church of Uganda archbishop says people should only uphold good aspects of culture.
Kapchorwa. Sylvia Chemutai is unsure whether she should not get circumcised the traditional way.
Her friends were, in November last year, arrested and imprisoned for undergoing female genital mutilation (FGM).
They served nine months in prison.
Whereas this instilled fear in Chemutai, she says she has not been educated and sensitised on the dangers and effects of the practice that has survived through a number of generations.
“Government should have initially sensitised us about the effects of FGM before rounding off our neighbours and arresting them for carrying out or supporting the practice,” Chemutai says.
Just like that, Chemutai did not adhere to calls on radio and through communities to take part in the first marathon that was organised as part of efforts to drum up support for an end to FGM.
The marathon was organised by the Church of Uganda, Sebei Diocese, in conjunction with Kapchorwa local government leadership and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
As Bishop Kipto Masaba, of Sebei Diocese explained, the objective of the marathon is to support government effort to eliminate FGM in the districts of Kapchorwa, Bukwo and Kween which are home to the Sabiny.
He also said he hoped to protect the girls from undergoing the harmful cultural practice.
Church of Uganda archbishop Stanley Ntagali, who was the chief runner, said FGM is not only dehumanising to women and the girl-child but is also brutal, inflicts permanent injuries and poses a great danger to girls and their children during child birth.
“All societies have culture but culture is dynamic and not static and changes with time,” the archbishop implored locals in Kapchorwa.
“If a culture is proved to be harmful to humans, like FGM, we can’t simply continue practising it because it’s our culture. Let us choose good things from our culture and avoid bad ones,” he added.
In her speech, UNFPA’s country representative Esperance Fundira said for many girls, FGM is forced on them against their will.
“Because it is a deeply rooted cultural tradition, they (girls) are raised into accepting that it is a rite of passage into womanhood and a condition for marriage only to discover later that there are far more reaching consequences than they could imagine,” she said.
FGM day
As the world marked the FGM day this year, United Nations Secretary General observed that if everyone is mobilised, women, men and young people, it is possible, in this generation, to end a practice that currently affects some 130 million girls and women in the 29 countries where we have data.
