“COVID19 means it’s even more important to break the cycle”

Natalie lives and works in Kuria, a rural area of southern Kenya, where prevalence of female genital mutilation/cutting may be as high as 96%. Under the increasing pressure of a global pandemic, Natalie is continuing her work to empower girls by providing sanitary products and preventing FGM/C. This is despite the impacts of the COVID 19 crisis making drivers of gender inequality even more acute.

“COVID is making the situation in Kuria and Kenya more widely quite difficult. The economic impact of the crisis means that many families do not have enough to even get the basic necessities. The economic situation affects how girls are treated. For a girl nearing the traditional age of cutting, it means she is at greater risk because once she’s cut, she is considered ready for marriage, and so families can have a back up plan or social security to support their livelihood through the girl’s marriage. 

Girls in a family where they cannot afford the basics are more likely to undergo FGM/C, more likely to go through child marriage, less likely to know how to control her menses, and more likely to get pregnant as a teenager. All these issues are tied together. Last year 100% of the girls in Kuria who were married off had been cut. 

Where I am, calamities such as COVID often make cutting ceremonies of girls and boys much bigger because of the belief that we need to appease the gods. Usually, the cutting season starts around August, but I heard young men chanting just this last week, which signals that the elders have said the cutting season should begin already.”