Every year, more than 1000 adolescent girls in Kuria and Maasai communities face the risk of being forced to undergo female genital mutilation/cut (FGM/C). This exposes them to immediate risk of bleeding sometimes to death and long term health risk and other risks including dropping out of school and early marriage.
In this community, Female Genital Mutilation is practiced as an initiation into womanhood, guaranteeing a girl’s marriageability. It is seen as proof of her strength and bravery and allows her to gain respect from other women.
HOPE for Girls @ VISA through the rescue centre, provides safe shelter for girls running from the cut and girls brought in by their parents who would not want to see their girls forced by the community to undergo the cut. These girls stay in the safe shelter centre for a period ranging from 3-4 weeks until it is safe for them.
The girls are taken through mentorships sessions, motivation talks by the Alumni girls and life skills so that they can be confident on the decision to say NO to FGM. At the end of the stay these girls are graduated through an Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP) which is similar to the one done by the community minus the cut. Therefore, ARP aim to offer a harmless alternative to FGM while fulfilling the function that FGM has in some communities: to mark the passage from childhood to womanhood.
So far we have rescued 386 girls
