Galukande, Moses, Kamara, Joseph, Ndabwire, Violet, Leistey, Violet, Valla, Cecilia, and Luboga, Sam (2015) Eradicating female genital mutilation and cutting in Tanzania: an observational study. BMC Public Health, 15. 1147.

Preview

PDF (Published Version) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (705kB) | Preview

Abstract

Background: Female genital mutilation and cutting (FGM/C) has long been practiced in various parts of the world. The practice is still prevalent in 29 countries on the African continent despite decades of campaigning to eradicate it. The approaches for eradication have been multi-pronged, including but not limited to, health risk campaigns teaching about the health consequences for the girls and the women, recruitment of change agents from within the communities and the enforcement of legal mechanisms. The purpose of this study was to analyse the impact of an 18 month long campaign to eradicate or reduce FGM/C in a rural predominantly Masai community.

Methods: An observational study involving mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative was conducted in Arusha region, Tanzania. A household survey, key informant interviews, focus group discussions, school children's group discussions and project document reviews for both baseline and endline assessments were used. Same tools were used for both baseline and endline assessements. Comparison of baseline and endline findings and conclusions were drawn.

Results: The prevalence of self reported FGM/C at endline was 69.2 %. However, physical obstetric examination of women in labour revealed a prevalence of over 95 % FGM/C among women in labour. Those in favour of FGM/C eradication were 88 %. Nearly a third of the 100 FGM practitioners had denounced the practice; they also formed a peer group that met regularly comparing baseline and endline. Knowledge about FGM/C health risks increased from 16 to 30 % (p < 0.001). The practice is currently done secretly to an uncertain extent.

Conclusion: This multifaceted educational campaign achieved moderate success in increasing knowledge of the health risks and changing attitudes despite a short period of intervention. However, its effectiveness in reducing FGM/C prevalence was uncertain.

Item ID:	84386
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1471-2458
Copyright Information:	© 2015 Galukande et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Date Deposited:	07 Jan 2025 22:35
Downloads:	Total: 3 Last 12 Months: 3
	More Statistics