Photo by Paula Allen
In April 2002, the first V-Day safe house, the Tasaru Girls’ Rescue Centre, opened in Narok, Kenya, as a shelter for girls seeking refuge from female genital mutilation (FGM) and early marriage. The safe house is operated by Tasaru Ntomomok, a community-based organization that has educated thousands about the dangers of FGM and early marriage. Under the leadership of Agnes Pareyio, the group also offers an alternative rite of passage for Maasai girls at puberty.
V-Day has been working in partnership with Tasaru Ntomomok since 2000. Eve Ensler met Agnes Pareyio in the field: “She had devoted her life for eight years to walking from village to village on foot, educating boys and girls and mothers and fathers about the dangers of FGM. In her eight years, she stopped 1,500 girls from being cut. When we met her, we said, ‘What can we do for you?’”
Traveling on foot, Pareyio needed a year to traverse the district. V-Day purchased a jeep to help her cover more territory. Soon Pareyio had reached 4500 girls, with a wooden vagina in hand that can be separated into its component parts. Pareyio tells the girls, in no-nonsense terms, what she remembers of her own circumcision day, and goes on to list some of the side effects of FGM: trauma, bleeding, fistula, difficult childbirth.
With 40 beds, the safe house is busiest in the summers, when many girls are afraid to return home from boarding schools for fear of being forced to go through FGM.
For the alternative rite of passage, Tasaru Ntomomok takes girls into a five-day seclusion during which they are taught to know themselves and empowered to make informed decisions about their own lives. This education intentionally reflects the Maasai culture, in which women start teaching their girls immediately after FGM takes place, when they are still in seclusion. Tasaru Ntomomok believes the teachings are important and should continue, but without the painful mutilation. "We appreciate the significance of some of our traditions, and we included these in the program," says Agnes Pareyio.
Although Kenya passed a law prohibiting FGM in 2001, Kenyan authorities have been slow to respond to the resistance to end FGM, despite grassroots efforts such as Tasaru Ntomomok’s. Agnes Pareyio is taking the matter of enforcement into her own hands. In 2004, she ran and was elected deputy mayor of Narok.
Tasaru Ntomomok or "Safe Motherhood Initiative" works to end the tradition of female genital mutilation among the Maasai community in the Rift Valley in Kenya. Women travel into the smallest communities to educate both girls and boys about alternatives to FGM.
Agnes Pareyio
The program educates and trains women and girls in prevention and self-protection measures against gender-based violence, and gives advice on where they can get legal and medical help in case of abuse.
Winfriddah Onyango
Kenya Association of Professional Counselors
KAPC now has an adolescent HIV Counselling and Free Testing Centre. The centre also contributes to Straight Talk, the adolescent newspaper that focuses on sexuality and reproductive health.
Jennifer Jadwero
