Uncut Girl Celebration To Take Place in Bona Woreda (District) on August 30, 2018

KMG’s expansion of its mobilization and programmatic efforts in Sidama Zone since 2004 have resulted in dramatic reductions in the prevalence of harmful cultural practices such as FGM, child abductions, forced marriages, and domestic violence. One of the  districts within the Sidama Zone that has benefited from KMG”s integrated development interventions is is Bona  Woreda which consists of  28 Kebeles (i.e. wards or neighborhoods).

KMG has scheduled a major event in Bona Woreda on August 30 to celebrate “Whole Body, Healthy Life, Freedom From FGM”, and to establish the “Uncut Girls Day” in Bona. On this day, people from all walks of life are expected to come together to show support for over 10,000 uncut girls celebrating their freedom, for their courageous families who dared challenge harmful traditions, for the young men who broke away from conventions and chose to marry uncut girls, and last but not least, for the Zone and District personnel who are uprooting the old culture harmful to women and girls, and  institutionalizing the new so as to ensure both near-term enforceability and long-term sustainability.

Ironically – but by design – this celebration is taking place on the very day when communities used to “celebrate” young girls’ emergence into womanhood, as “marriageable young women”, after being traumatized by  FGM to “remove their dirt”.