Foibe proudly walks out of a red plastered hut, leading a line of other dancing and singing girls. Outside, they join a group of men, women, and children in dance to celebrate their coming out. Adorned in their new black cotton robes, Foibe and her friends elegantly swing their heads and shoulders, looking down and smiling shyly to the crowd. Today, they have all the reasons to smile. The girls have officially entered adulthood-after seven intense days of training by the elders in the community.

More important, these girls have been spared the agony and trauma of female genital mutilation (FGM) that typically kicks off the rites of passage for many Gogo girls in the Dodoma region of central Tanzania . The parents of these girls decided not to mutilate their daughters, but instead allowed the respected elderly women to teach them all the traditions, practices, and responsibilities of a Gogo woman.

Mother and daughter enjoying a new era of womenhood in Tanzania
Photo Credit: Dan Craun Selka/Pact

"I feel very lucky today," says 14-year-old Foibe. "I have been spared all the pain that other girls have gone through! I have heard the stories associated with cutting. I'm really happy I don't have to go through it." This is due to the efforts of Women Wake Up (WOWAP), an NGO seeking the end of all forms of harmful traditional practices that endanger the lives of women and children. Thanks to the leadership of USAID/Tanzania in building the capacity of civil society to advocate for women and children's rights, WOWAP is able to work with communities to campaign against FGM through songs, dances, video shows, radio programs, and public meetings conducted in schools.

FGM is typically unsanitary. Midwives use unclean sharp instruments such as razor blades, scissors, kitchen knives, and pieces of glass to excise the clitoris and other portions of the labia. These instruments are frequently used on several girls in succession and are rarely cleaned. Infections of the genital and surrounding areas are common, and often result in the transmission of HIV/AIDS. Other health risks include fatalities as a result of shock, hemorrhage, or septicemia.

After attending a public meeting, an ngariba (a person who performs the circumcisions and does the cutting) decided to try the initiation without cutting. The girls got their seven days of training away from their homes under the tutelage of the elder women. At the end of the seventh day, the community, including village and religious leaders came together to celebrate the successful transformation of their daughters. Mothers joyously played drums for their daughters and led the singing and dancing. The girls got their new robes, slippers, earrings, and beads. The community ate and drank through the night-just like any other rites of passage celebration. "I'm happy we decided to include our daughter in the group," says Lucy, a mother of 7-year-old Neema who also was initiated. "I was slaughtered like a chicken and I didn't want my daughter to go through the same."

It is also important to note that even though FGM is currently illegal in many countries in Africa and the Middle East, this has not reduced the number of the girls that are mutilated every year. The governments of these countries have no way of monitoring the spread and practice of FGM. Trying to fight FGM on legal terms is not enough since those who practice it often times do not report it. FGM is also widely practiced in villages and remote places where the government does not have an easy access. At the moment, initiation without cutting seems to be the best alternative in the campaigns against FGM. WOWAP hopes to use this experience in all the other areas where FGM continue to destroy the lives of hundreds of girls and women.