SS+FGC+neg+-+UNPFA+CP

__UNPFA.org__**, 9/9/**__05__**, http://www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID=672 UNFPA, __United Nations Population Fund, is working with governments and civil society organizations in a global campaign to eliminate gender-based violence, including FGM/FGC__ and forced marriage. In this way, __UNFPA helps countries__ meet **Millennium Development Goal 3**: to __promote gender equality and empower women__. __The Fund’s support is evident in the Tasaru Ntomonok Girls Rescue Centre, which was created in 1999 as part of a project aimed at addressing FGM/FGC__ and forced marriages. //Tasaru ntomonok means ‘rescue the woman’// in the local Maa language. __The Centre caters to girls who have been thrown out of their homes for running away from FGM/FGC__ or forced marriages. __It provides__ Sylvia and 57 other __residents with shelter, protection education and skills training. UNFPA funded the construction of the building where the girls receive training. It also pays school fees for the girls and supports outreach and advocacy activities. The project leases a 100-hectare farm where the centre grows wheat and runs a maize mill to provide income for women who formerly earned money by performing FGM/FGC. Proceeds from the farm help make the centre more sustainable. Beyond protecting and offering educational and vocational training opportunities to the girls, the rescue centre also tries to reconcile them with their parents and communities. So far, it has reunited 88 girls with their families.__ Alternative Rites of Passage __The second pillar of the Tasaru Ntomonok initiative is an alternative rite of passage to womanhood – without the cut. It is an example of a culturally sensitive approach – one that respects the value of the tradition, but rejects the violence associated with it.__ “The __law makes female genital mutilation and cutting illegal. But it will take a long time for it to be effective. In the meantime, we need to be educating and sensitizing our communities about the negative effects of the practice. We also need to offer them alternative rites of passage__,” says Ms. Pareyio. The Tasaru Ntomonok initiative conducts two rites of passage yearly, in August and November. Participants, ages nine and older, are voluntarily enrolled in the rite by their parents. __The ceremony replaces FGM/FGC, to which participants would otherwise have been subjected. During the first five days in residence, the girls are given culturally appropriate lessons on reproductive health, sexuality and the challenges of adulthood. “We invite old women to teach the young girls everything in their culture except cutting. They are taught social interaction, including how to handle their home and husband,”__ says Ms. Pareyio. On the sixth day, __parents and other members of the community are invited to a public ceremony marking the girls’ transition to adulthood. Prayers are offered by the girls’ godmothers. The ceremony is accompanied by communal feasting, certificates and gifts, declarations by the girls that they will not be cut, and promises by the parents and the community leaders to abandon FGM/FGC. The Tasaru Ntomonok initiative has, so far, offered 350 girls an alternative rite of passage to womanhood.__ Speaking to last August’s graduates, Fabian Byomuhangi, UNFPA Deputy Representative,
 * The United Nations Population Fund has empirically funded programs that achieved incredible success in** **Africa** **towards FGC

advised the 40 girls to have faith in themselves. He warned parents not to construe the rite of passage as an indication that the girls were now ready for marriage. “__They must given the chance to continue their education for as long as they desire,__” he said. __Improving educational prospects for girls and women is another way in which this project furthers the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Reducing disparities in education is one of the targets associated with the goal of empowering women.__