CIFORD Kenya started the Alternative rite of passage a decade ago which are done three times a year during the school holidays. There are over 3000 girls who have been rescued from Female Genital Mutilation through the ARP. Has this project been successful could be a question in our minds,
So, where are the girls who went through the ARP session almost decade ago? Well, we are now on a journey to trace the girls who went through our ARP share with you
Eddy Makena.
Makena is a 22 year old girl who attended CIFORD Seminar for girls Alternative Rite of passage in 2013 at St Angelas. When we visited Makena, she was so excited and said “ The seminar is still very fresh in my mind. We wore a green Tshirt during our graduation. I loved my Tshirt a lot. Many people used to stop to read the message at the back of myTshirt. I was so proud and always felt as an ambassador of the message at the back of the Tshirt . Its unfortunate that I don’t have a sister to attend the seminar but I have been telling my neighbors,”

When Makena was asked how the seminar helped her she was quick to say” I can say I might be the only beneficiary as all the girls in my village in my time who did not attend the seminar dropped out of school and got pregnant, Today some of them have out grown their age as they look old. “ “ I thank CIFORD and their friends for making my life to be what it is today. I am through with education and I am a primary school teacher”

Hellen Nkirote
Helen attended the seminar in 2013 at St Angelas Girls school,When we visited her, which was at home because the university is in recess. Helen says she is thankful to CIFORD for organizing the seminar and host her and the other girls. Helen told us that “ Many girls of my age were forced to undergo female genital mutilation but when I went for the seminar I got the information and facts about FGM and this helped me make decision that I was destinied to study and go to university. “

Helen says that was was encouraged by the fact that the administration assured them the government will arrest anybody who harasses them or forces them to undergo FGM. “ After I left he seminar I wrote Margaret’s Number as a tool to help me in case my mother wanted to take me for FGM. This is what has made me to be whom I am today”
“Today, I am graduate of Bachelor of Science Food and beverages from Mt Kenya University. I am so proud of mum Margaret and her friends who made it possible to attend the seminar”
