Page 18 - Dispatches - June 2022

Outlook on Working Toward The Darkness
Women
a FGM-Free Community by Ragnar Jónasson

How one Maasai activist is giving

girls the power to choose

By Lucy Sepeko
Swakei
In 2013 I went to college, and graduated
Lucy is an FGM in 2015 with a diploma in community
survivor and activist in health assistance. I started my journey by
Amboseli, Kenya. volunteering in a nearby health facility,

Right: Inspired by Amboseli Dispensary.
survivors like Lucy, I went directly into Maasai communities to
girls in Amboseli discuss issues dealing with FGM. At first,
Village and other the communities received the information
Maasai communities in a negative way. No family wished to be
are rejecting FGM in associated with a girl who had not undergone
increasingly large FGM, for fear of being shunned. Maasai men
numbers. rejected girls who were uncut, believing the
y name is Lucy Sepeko Swakei, and practice keeps women chaste before marriage.
Becoming Masaai I’m a resident of Amboseli Village, I never gave up the fight. I started going to
Women MKajiado South, Kenya. I grew up in
a family of six siblings, two males and four schools, talking to girls directly. I told them
females (myself included), raised up by a the importance of knowing their rights and the
single mother. harmful side-effects of FGM. I went back again
to the communities, talking with old mamas,
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a practice village elders, and chiefs about the negative
rampant in some communities of Kenya, effects of FGM, and I went around into churches
See how one Maasai especially within the Maasai community— and youth meetings. I talked to people about
community has come despite the fact that FGM has been illegal other major health issues, too, such as the
together to end the in Kenya since 2011. In our community, it is importance of immunizations, prenatal care,
practice of female believed that in order for a girl to become a family planning, and the prevention of HIV and
circumcision. real woman, she must undergo FGM. So girls other sexually transmitted infections. For all
grew up knowing that they would have to of this, I was able to connect people with the
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undergo FGM as a way of being initiated into health facility.
womanhood. It was never presented as a choice. Dealing with the community and changing

Learn firsthand I didn’t know my rights by the time I went their mindset about FGM is not easy, but with
about the through the initiation. There was no one to tell the help of the government, things are now
Controversial Topic us about the harmful effects of FGM then, so getting better. Yes, some members of the
of female genital my younger sister and I went through the cut community are still performing FGM in secrecy,
mutilation during in 2004. What I went through was very painful, even though it’s illegal in Kenya. But for now,
New! Kenya & and I didn’t want any other girl to go through I’m finally happy because the community has
Tanzania Safari: what I experienced. But because I was so young, begun to respond positively to the information
Masai Mara to the I felt there was nothing I could do. I promised I have shared with them—and most girls, with
Serengeti. myself that one day, in time, I would help girls the support of their families, are refusing to
from my community to choose not to have this undergo FGM.
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procedure.
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