Page 11WEDNESDAY LIFE / Wednesday, March 25, 2015 / The Standard

The name Loise Kapande Oloo-bis was once synonymous with female circumcision in Oldonyonyokie village in

Magadi, Kajiado County.But while her expertise at cutting

women thrilled die-hard traditional-ists in this ultra-conservative com-munity, the mere mention of her name sent chills down the spines of circumcision candidates.

For Sh1,000 or less, she would ‘promote’ at least 300 girls to wom-anhood in a day through the razor, a process that took just three minutes for each, she says.

“The procedure was nerve-rack-ing because there was a lot of kicking from the girls,” she says. The girls are not supposed to cry because they would be branded cowards and risk not finding men to marry them.

“And yes, it was also messy, with blood flowing everywhere,” Oloobis observes. “But in my eyes, then, it was a source of pride to be the one to do it for the whole community.”

It is important to recognise that although thousands of girls experi-enced horror at her hands as ‘pro-cessed’ them into womanhood, the female cut is a deeply-rooted cultur-al issue that requires the concerted efforts of all stakeholders to elimi-nate.

Today, Oloobis, who is also a tra-ditional birth attendant, has aban-doned the knife to become a role model in the promotion of alterna-tive rites of passage for Maasai wom-en and girls. And slowly, communi-ties that hitherto promoted female circumcision are gradually changing their ways to adopt alternative rites of passage for girls.

The United Nations Population Fund estimates that 140 million girls and women alive today have under-gone some form of female genital mutilation (FGM), adding that if cur-rent trends continue, about 86 mil-lion additional girls worldwide will be subjected to the practice by 2030.

FGM is mostly carried out on young girls often from infancy to age 15 years. It causes severe bleeding and health issues including cysts, in-fections, infertility as well as compli-cations in childbirth including the risk of new-born deaths. It also vio-lates the human rights of girls and women.

Last December, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution call-ing on member states to develop, support and implement compre-hensive and integrated strategies for the prevention of FGM, including training of medical personnel and social workers as well as community

and religious leaders to ensure they provide competent, supportive ser-vices and care for women and girls who are at risk of or have undergone FGM.

To beef up efforts to eradicate the practice, the African Medical Re-search Foundation (Amref) has also initiated activities to end the prac-tice in Magadi, Samburu, Loitoktok and Kilindi.

Under the banner ‘Let girls be women without the cut’, the Amref

Alternative rite of passage gets thumbs up among morans,

eldersA participant at a beauty pageant, which is organised to enhance girls’ confidence and self-esteem. LEFT: Former circumciser turned role model, Loise Oloobis. [phoTos: dann okoTh/sTandard]

Changing the campaign strategy and involving elders, religious leaders, chiefs and morans, who hold great sway in the community, has brought results

project funded by the Dutch Minis-try of Foreign Affairs aims to increase awareness on FGM, encourage ac-ceptance of alternative rites of pas-sage (ARP) and increase girl/boy en-rolment, retention and transition in schools.

“Our approach has been unique in that we engage with the commu-nity leaders and members and through dialogue they agree to re-place the cut with a safe alternative,” says Amref’s Dr Meshak Ndirangu.

“Under the alternative rite of pas-sage, we embrace culture by taking away the negative aspects of a girl

My story

At first it was very dif-ficult to convince the elders because in the Masaai culture men and woman cannot sit with together —much less to discuss sexual matters — Loise Kapande Oloobis

—With Dann Okoth

transitioning to a woman, and retain the positive aspects,” he adds. In-volving the community in the project has been a big boost in the cam-paign.

In Magadi, the organisation has engaged 400 cultural elders, 817 mo-rans, 85 traditional birth attendants, 246 religious leaders, 11 civil society organisations and ten schools, all of whom have publicly supported re-placement of the cut with ARP.

To date, 7,361 girls have graduat-ed to womanhood through the ARP, a process that includes training girls in sexual reproductive health, beau-

ty pageants for self-esteem, blessings by cultural elders, girls giving gifts to their fathers as a sign that they are now accepted as having graduated to womanhood and public denounce-ment of FGM by girls, morans, elders and political leaders, explains Ndirangu.

However, there are serious chal-lenges in confronting deeply-rooted traditions while addressing health problems facing a community.

“At first, we targeted the girls with little success because they were not decision makers,” says Peter Ofware, Amref programme manager for Child and Reproductive Health.

“We had to change the strategy and target the elders, religious lead-ers, chiefs and morans who held great sway in the community. At first it was very difficult to convince the elders because in the Maasai culture, men and woman cannot sit together — much less to discuss sexual mat-ters.

“Gradually, while applying high-impact strategies like confront-ing the custodians of the culture and pointing out that this had everything to do with the people’s health, the el-ders and morans began to accept the message,” says Ofware.

Being involved in the campaign has influenced morans’ appreciation of their women as human beings with rights. They also now know the health risks involved in FGM, includ-ing exposure to HIV through ex-tra-marital affairs.

At this time of the year, Oloobis would be sharpening her knife in readiness for the April circumcision season. However, today, she is sharp-ening a knife of a different kind — her communication skills to drive home the message against FGM.