BUKWO: Twenty-one year-old Cheptoyek Filomena from Mengo village, Riwo Subcounty in Bukwo District is a married woman with two children. Phenomena’s courageous stand against Female Genital Mutilation is a testament to her unwavering resolve. Growing up in a community where FGM was deeply-engrained, Phenomena faced immense pressure from her mother-in-law to undergo the cut.  

When Phenomena dropped out of school in Primary Six at the age of 19 years due to lack of school fees, marriage was the only next option for her. Unknown to her, the home that she was to get married into to was rooted into practicing Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). 

“My mother-in-law valued the practice more than any woman I ever met,” she narrates. 

“When I found out she wanted me mutilated, I tried to turn down the marriage proposal. But my mother convinced me to accept the marriage,”  she said. Soon, life became very difficult as Phenomena had constant misunderstandings with her mother-in-law almost every day. 

“It was so tough that for every other mistake I made, I was blamed on the fact that I was not mutilated (initiated into womanhood),” she narrates. 

Phenomena says while she faced a lot of humiliation, she did not succumb to the pressure.

 “My mother-in-law said things like: “You are not fit enough to touch any of my property or come near my territory. My son needs to find another suitable woman. You are a young girl and not woman enough.” 

She even accused me of disrespecting her and my husband started to believe his mother. 

Whenever her time for delivery was at hand, Philomena says, her mother-in-law would plan to take her to a traditional birth attendant so that she could be mutilated after delivery. But she got wind of the plan and escaped where she would stay with an auntie until after giving birth.

“When I was due to conceive my second child, I was under so much pressure to cut and my mother-in-law had told me that I will be cut during the delivery,” she narrates. 

Despite the risk of social ostracism and rejection, Phenomena refused to give in.

One evening, a friend informed Philomena about an organization that was looking for adolescent girls and young women who had dropped out-of-school, to form clubs where they could be empowered with knowledge and skills. Without hesitation, she registered and became a club member. 

“While in the club, I learned about gender-based violence, family planning, menstrual hygiene and where to refer to someone when s/he gets a problem. We were also taken through FGM and its dangers. 

“We were also told of how FGM makes girls drop out of school, early pregnancies and child marriages."

As these revelations had already rung my earlier fears about FGM, this made me even more active in club activities because I gained the courage to fight this vice, and this is how I was selected to become an assistant mentor. 

Today, she is a member of the Empowerment and livelihood for Adolescents (ELA) club in Mengo village, Riwo Subcounty in Bukwo District. 

Under the UNFPA-UNICEF Joint Programme to Eliminate Female Genital Mutilation, the ELA clubs are a community-based aim initiative aimed to improve the quality of life of vulnerable adolescents and young people. The clubs create a safe space where young women and girls come together to develop a set of skills to enhance economic empowerment, confidence and self-reliance for better health outcomes.

Through activities like games, music, dance and drama skits, they address gender-based violence, harmful practices like female genital mutilation and child marriage, and offer life skills training, financial literacy and father’s forum meetings, empowering young people to create positive change in their lives and communities.

“Being able to read the training manuals as an assistant mentor enabled me to read more notes and I now talk to my fellow friends about the dangers of FGM,” she says.  

Today, Phenomena is a beacon of hope for girls and women in her community, inspiring them to stand up against FGM and demand their rights. Her remarkable journey is a powerful reminder that one person can make a difference in the fight against harmful practices.

Submitted by BRAC Uganda