Sometimes our amazing partners surprise even us! Last December, at the request of village elders, Josphine offered her first Alternative Rite of Passage (ARP) in Wamba – a 6-day program/ceremony to replace Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). Since last December we have rescued 306 girls from FGM, and we have over 320 girls on the wait list – an accomplishment that other Samburus we know thought was impossible!
Organizations have been trying to change this cultural practice for decades with little success, but they typically take a confrontational approach that drives up angry walls. Josphine’s approach is different. She meets with village elders to discuss issues they are facing and brainstorm solutions, using questions rather than lectures and applying their cultural values to a variety of situations. In the end, villagers repeatedly conclude that they might have to let some harmful traditions go in order to preserve and strengthen what is most important to them about their culture.
If you are wondering if ARPs are truly working to stem FGM in the Wamba area, in June we received proof. The women who perform FGM on young girls are known as “cutters”, and a group of Wamba cutters got together to complain about losing their illegal income and to plead with the government for economic help! What better way to demonstrate the success of our efforts to end FGM in Wamba? (You needn’t worry about these women: they will be cared for by their villages.)
Even more exciting, rigidly traditional Samburu families from remote villages, normally beyond the reach of our programs, gathered near Maralal for three months over the summer for sacred ceremonies, and Josphine was invited to speak to them as well. Despite the very challenging subject matter – from domestic abuse to child marriage, from culturally-accepted sexual violence to FGM – the elders have asked her to come back again and again. Many of those families, too, have decided to embrace ARPs in place of FGM. The potential for a remarkable cultural change across the Samburu tribe is palpable and seems limited only by the capacity of our small team.
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