Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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New Vision - January 25, 2005
Nathan Etengu
Data from all the district's 49 parishes showed that the number of women who underwent the ritual dropped from 621 in the 2002 circumcision season. The data showed that 261 women were saved from the knife through peer education and provision of incentives to the circumcision surgeons, some of whom hail from Kenya.
The data collected by the anti-female genital mutilation (FGM) advocates was presented to a review meeting convened by the Reproductive Education and community Health (REACH) project on Friday.
Kapchorwa Woman MP Gertrude Kulany, who started the anti-FGM crusade in 1995 and United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) representative Henry Kalule attended the workshop.
REACH is funded by UNFPA to fight fgm and other negative cultural practices.
Kongasis county topped the list of circumcised women with 275 against 331 in the 2002 circumcision season followed by Kween county with 183 and Tingei with 136.
Akisoferi Kalenget who collected the data for Tingei county said the Acholi wife of a UPDF soldier based in Gulu, was circumcised at Kapkirwok parish, Sipi sub-county where she lived with her in-laws.
"She has since healed," he told the review meeting held at Masha Hotel in Kapchorwa town.
Kalenget said some of the circumcision rituals were carried out in the night to avoid detection.
He said some of the women were badly cut and were left with "very large holes," while others were cut using the same knife thereby leaving them open to HIV/AIDS infection.
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