By Mahnaz M Harrison | Project Leader
These past few months have been bittersweet for our team, and the rural communities we serve. We lost a colleague to a fatal traffic accident that devastated all of us. She, with her strong character and her advocacy on behalf of our girls’ right to remain free of FGM, remains an inspiration for all of us. We lost a great Kenyan colleague, a champion and a good friend. Her work of building community connections has helped us to engage more families and stakeholders through our education modules.
As we mourn her loss we are also inspired by her work and are determined to continue her path. To this end and despite another long school holiday/cutting season we continue our march toward being free of FGM. During the August school holiday we held 8 community meetings, we had close to 1,000 community members attending these meetings. Nearly half of the parents signed public declarations that they would not cut their girls and will support the campaign to stop FGM. We continuously encourage and invite young boys who are the keepers of culture to attend these meetings and become the changemakers in their communities against FGM. In these weeks we had over 50 boys under age 20 who partook in these activities. We held these sensitization activities in the following communities and included stakeholders including religious leaders, school administrators, teachers, government officials and of course the parents: Kegonga Church, Sironga Church, Tukumwok Church, Naramam- Kipkomo, Matare MFA Church, Chesra Primary School, Lokichar Primary School, and Kiomakebe Chief’s Office.
We also held graduation ceremonies to mark alternative rites of passage for the girls, planting trees instead of cutting the girls. We held these ceremonies in three schools in West Pokot for over 400 girls and planted 150 trees.
A gift of $500.00 will plant a grove of 150 trees in honor of the uncut girls. It will also support parents and the girls participating in the planting of trees and celebrating together a future of hope, health and healing. Please help is with this “Gift of Growth and Promise”:
Send us a message at info@lastmile4d.org if you want to find out more about our work in Kenya.
It is only with your support that girls can continue to celebrate their liberation from FGM. On behalf of the girls dreaming of a better and healthier life, we ask you to continue supporting our efforts. Some of you have opted to be recurring donors, which brings us matching dollars from GlobalGiving. A million thanks from me, our team, and of course the girls, for supporting us.
Please follow us on Instagram @Lastmile4d and Twitter @LastMile_4d. Also, visit our website at www.lastmile4d.org to learn about our work.
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