Government takes FGM commemoration to Kapchorwa on 20th April

While addressing the media in Kampala on the commemoration of the Zero Tolerance Day for Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the state Minister for Gender and Culture affairs Mutuuzo Peace Regis said  the national celebrations  be will be on Wednesday 20th at Kapchorwa district headquarters.

According to Mutuuzo, the FGM day is usually commemorated on February 6th each year, but due to un avoidable commitments, Uganda wasn’t able to observe this day in February this year.

The zero tolerance day to FGM is commemorated worldwide each year to mainly provide an opportunity to deliberate on the challenges, next steps and achievements towards fighting FGM.

‘’Female Genital Mutilation is one of the worst forms of dehumanization and gender inequality that any human being can go through because it takes away the womanhood, dignity and worth of a woman’’ Mutuuzo emphasized.

Since 2009, the Gender Ministry has been implementing the United Nations joint program on FGM that focuses on development of a conducive legal and policy framework, strengthening access to services, increasing awareness among communities on dangers of FGM and also gathering evidence to facilitate advocacy interventions.

Currently, this partnership has been able to reduce the prevalence from 1.4percent in 2011 to 0.3 at national level although in the practicing districts of Karamoja and Sebei the average prevalence is still on 50 percent and 20 percent respectively.

Though in 2018 Uganda made a commitment at global level to accelerate abandonment of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting by at least 95 percent by the end of 2021, a lot of work is still needed to register this success and the focus should be enhanced to those practicing communities where the prevalence has remained high.

While celebrating this year’s Zero Tolerance Day, the theme will be “Accelerating Investment to End Female Genital Mutilation” aimed at calling upon increased investment starting from the national to the local levels.

While putting their efforts and emphasis in fighting this vice, Mutuuzo said that the key areas of intervention lately include Economic empowerment of women and girls through education, skilling and linkages to existing financial services and also to build Gender Based Violence shelters within local governments.

Mutuuzo also added that, in the next five years priorities are going to rotate on involving youth and young people, men and also traditional leaders all for identification of an alternative rite of passage and documentation of good practices.

Mutuuzo who also called upon Ugandan’s to follow the proceedings through the media later emphasized that the Ministry is to continue prioritizing and strengthening cross border interventions and with this they believe that it will enable them achieve their vision of eliminating FGM by 2030.