By Audrey Raymonda John

60 Bondo without cutting ambassadors on Friday 4th August 2023 graduated and showcased from the Bondo without cutting at Rosengbeh Village, Port Loko District, north-western region in Sierra Leone.

The initiates are between the ages of 19-33 years and are the third batch to be initiated into the ‘Bondo’ society without female genital mutilation in the country.

Among the initiates are lactating mothers and students who have become the third initiate for the alternative rites of passage. The ceremony attracted preventatives from Irish Aid, United Kingdom (UK), German embassies including representatives from the Ministries of Development and Economic Planning and Soweis, community stakeholders and parents of the initiates respectively.

Addressing participants, the Director of Amazonian Initiative Movement Sierra Leone (AIM-SL) said the 60 initiates are the third batch of successful initiates without any harm during the initiation processes.

She said the Bondo without cutting is supported by PfefferminGreen and BMZ, a German organisation, adding that the project encompasses with the replace bondo bush with schools, construction of water wells, skill training centres and a host of their projects just to make women become strong in their localities.

She said all of the initiates went through thorough screening processes before they were accepted to be part of the initiation processes.

According to Madam Turay, FGM is a practice that have retrogress women especially in deprived communities in the country, adding that when people go to the hospitals and other secluded medical facilities most of women on Hospital beds are victims  of FGM.

She said apart from the medical implications, politicians have brain wash women, supporting them to undertake FGM practice while politicians’ daughters are overseas going to schools and universities.

She maintained that, women have suffered the economic and psychological problems due to the practice of FGM.

Madam Rugiatu stressed that to ensure that such heinous practice is abolished, her organisation is working alongside the Ministry of Planning Economic and Development, Ministry Health and sanitation as well as working with Social Welfare Ministry to ensure that the practice is mitigated to allow women to thrive.

What they do, according to Madam Rugiatu Neneh Turay, the officials from these Ministries and donor partners were also allowed to speak to the initiates on why they are ‘trying to protect their clitoris.’

“Because most of the times the midwives are complaining about the type of constraints women are going through while giving birth, because the thing that should help them to deliver safely is no longer there,” she pointed out.

She said in order to end FGM practice, donor partners should shift their pattern of spending monies on administrative cost and direct their fundings to the frontline activists for appreciable result.

‘Use the funds to protect women and girls, direct your funds to us, you can see result. These ceremonies are testament of the perfect work to end FGM in Sierra Leone. We are pushing and pushing hard’ she said.

The representatives from the Irish Aid, UK and German Embassies expressed their gratitude to the AIM-SL organisation for standing tall to protect women in Sierra Leone.

They said the Bondo without any harm ceremony demonstrated the focus on protecting women in Sierra Leone.

The representatives appreciated the community stakeholders for allowing Madam Rugiatu Neneh and her frontline workers to educate them about the harmful effect of FGM and all other related violence against women.

They all expressed their determination to continue to support frontline movements to achieve result, in protecting women and girls in Sierra Leone.

A representative from Forum Against Harmful Practice (FAHP), the Administrative Officer of FAHP, Ishmael Cole expressed thanks to AIM-SL especially Madam Rugiatu Neneh Turay who doubles as the Chairperson of FAHP and partners to make the ceremony to protect women and girls in Sierra Leone.

Ishmael Cole also thanked the PfefferminGreen and BMZ organisations for their intervention and support to AIM-SL for such huge projects to save women and girls in hard to reach communities.

He appealed to partners to see the reason to send their monies to smaller organisations, adding that these small organisations can produce result.

One of the 60 initiates, Marie Kamara said no one was tortured inside the bush, and that they learned new things they were not aware of while in the bush.

“They showed us how to prepare food, how to sweep- we were taught how to greet and respect elders,” she added.

She furthered that they were asked to collect wood for the chiefs and other elders as tradition demands.

‘What I passed through in that bush would make me survive many difficulties in my marriage and other places in the society;’, she affirmed.

She advised parents not to force their children into FGM and support the Alternative Rite of Passage.

Agness Kanu, a Sowei who has been initiating young girls into the Bondo society for the past 25years said at some point she was jailed for six months for allegedly killing an eighteen year old girl during initiation,

‘Since that time I quit the practice, but later joined bloodless bondo process to sensitize other Soweis to stop the cutting aspect, because Bondo is still complete without cutting’

Soweis representative from Bonthe District, representative from the Ministry of Planning and Economic Development and Community Chief and other stakeholders all made salient statements regarding the harmful traditional practices.

The ceremony was climaxed by showcasing the 60 bloodless bondo initiates, dancing, and celebrations with the new grandaunts in the view of thousands of people in the village.