Case study on FGM The CPCs are established and trained not only as a community structures for CP in the communities but also involved in community activities like child protection through mobilization and awareness. This also causes inter community involvement of the CPCs in FGM eradication and protection relating activities.
During a community mobilization carried out by the Child Protection Committees in Wadajir district, they encountered a mother taking her three daughters to a FGM practitioner and ready to put her daughter under the knife in order to fulfill her forefathers’ tradition. The CPC managed to somehow discuss with her and the community at large inclusive of the FGM practitioners on the effects of FGM both immediate and late complications depending on several factors:
The type of FGM, the conditions in which the procedure took place and whether the practitioner had medical training.
Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is defined as all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. FGM is practiced as a cultural ritual and the barbarous old customs still lingers in our communities believing that nothing other than the reduction of female pleasure would preserve female chastity. However, much has been accomplished to eradicate this tradition through regular awareness and discussion with different communities in the society since the stoppage of FGM practices is the project’s goal.
Immediate complications include fatal bleeding, acute urinary retention and urinary infection.
Late complications include painful periods, pain during sexual intercourse and infertility.
After the CPC members talked to the mother for some hours persuading her to retrieve the girls from the practice bearing in mind the complications mentioned, the mother agreed the stop of the practice from her daughters and follow up made by the CPCs through household visits , the mothers actually did not do the practice on her daughters.
As for the FGM practitioners, they unanimously expressed to seek other alternatives businesses to win their daily bread hence eradicating the inhumane activity once and for all.
