On October 31, 2004, thousands of women, men and children from diverse regions of Southern Ethiopia converged on the town of Durame to celebrate the end of female genital mutilation in the Kembatta-Tembaro zone, as well as other life-affirming changes that have swept the region in the eight years since KMG was founded.

Since January 2004, KMG’s eight offices in the Kembatta-Tembaro zone have reported no known incidents of the centuries-old practice of genital excision, which was nearly universal when KMG opened. Work is now expanding into other regions of Ethiopia where FGE still prevails. KMG, which is frequently cited as one of Ethiopia’s most effective community-based NGOs, hopes to eradicate this devastating practice in its operating region in the next five years.

The event, titled The Celebration of Whole Body and Healthy Life and Freedom from Female Genital Excision, was one of the most remarkable scenes ever witnessed in this part of Africa. Journalists estimated the crowd that flowed into the donated municipal soccer field at 70,000 to 100,000 people, including 25,000 uncut girls and hundreds of newlywed couples with uncut brides, their babies, who have committed to whole, healthy bodies. Because battling FGE is just one of the goals in KMG’s holistic approach, we also celebrated a dramatic decline in many other harmful customary practices, like bridal abductions and sharing the bride with the best man, widow inheritances, etc. Participants of different ethnicities and backgrounds traveled to the event on foot, on horseback, and trucks jammed with people. The district of Kachebirra, which organized the area’s first public wedding of an uncut bride just two years earlier, sent 96 lorries, each carrying 110-130 people.

“This is the season in which girls traditionally come out as marriageable young women after being cut,” Boge Gebre, founder executive director of KMG, told the multitudinous crowd. “We called this painful ritual ‘getting the dirt out’ because we could not utter the word for it. When we were cut, many of us nearly bled to death. When we came out from the recuperation period, our fingernails were pulled out and our genitalia were cut. Yet, we held our heads high, we did our hair differently, we walked differently. We were proud because the day we came out was the day our communities recognized us as marriageable young women. Today, we bring all of that pride without the pain and the dying, without the bleeding. Today is the day of a new birth, a new language, and a new tradition. A new day for the women of Kembatta, Tembaro, Alaba, and the people of all Ethiopia.”

Ten young uncut women were presented with silver medallions as a symbol of new womanhood. Later, more than 11,000 of the engraved silver medallions were distributed to young women sixteen and over who had been identified by outreach workers in their communities as publicly committed to refusing to be cut. The medals were engraved by a local artisan with Amharic letters signifying Wimmeta, which means "I am whole" in the language of Kembatta.

Gebre, briefly put on the symbolic medal herself, and then removed it, quipping in Kembatisa, “You all know me. I was just trying to model it for you”

“We are here to celebrate those who are whole and healthy, but don’t think for a moment that I’m forgetting those who have been already harmed,” she said, as many women in the crowd cried. “How could I forget? I cannot forget, because I am one of you. I can never forget, because I am one of you. While we grieve for our loss, we also know that our children will never go through this. They will control the integrity of their own bodies. And their children will have control of the integrity of their own bodies. Our children will keep what makes women feel like women.”

A decade ago, female genital excision was never mentioned out loud. Neither was HIV-AIDS. On this day, however, thousands of young women wore yellow T-shirts proclaiming that they are uncut. In Ethiopia, yellow symbolizes freedom. Many held up hand-painted banners saying, “We will never allow anyone to harm us or our children,” and “This is our freedom day: we will not be cut!” Other girls carried signs saying, “I am so lucky I am not cut!”
The celebration was a milestone for KMG as well as for the people it serves. With the support of numerous donors and the presence of many official guests, KMG took advantage of the event to formally open the KMG center, and the Mother and Child Health Center, which is the first health care facility of its kind in the region. The MCH was officially opened by Timothy Clarke, the ambassador to Ethiopia of the European Union, which has been a major funder of reproductive health and reduction of the prevalence of FGE.
“I’m glad that the European Union over the past few years has been able to see what a great thing can come from choosing the right people, the right communities, to make a difference,” Ambassador Clarke said at the opening of the MCH-Center. “This project has been evaluated three times – just recently it was evaluated by a team of experts from the European Union – and it has been regarded as the most successful project that we’ve ever funded in Ethiopia. So, don’t be surprised if we bring more people to visit this project, that we do everything we can to multiply the work of this project in other parts of Ethiopia and Africa”
Also participating in the ceremonies were representatives of many of the organizations that helped fund the celebration including: CIDA, Path Finder, UNDP, Norwegian Church Aid, Danish Church Aid, Austrian Embassy Development Corporation, CRDA, SNV, and many local NGOs. A potable water system funded by the Japanese Embassy was also inaugurated.
While fighting harmful traditional practices, KMG is encouraging the rebirth of positive traditions including arts and dances, architecture and storytelling and unrecorded local languages that are at risk of dying out. Many participants came in traditional costumes bearing handicrafts from their region. Horsemen performed traditional competitions rarely seen in the region today. Other participants wore Western garb but carried traditional elephant hide shields or spears as they danced to traditional drum music. Moslem women and men from Alaba mixed with young women and men of Christian or other faiths in an outpouring of joy that brought tears to the eyes of many participants.
Throughout the daylong celebration, groups surged forward to present to Boge, as Gebre is known, gifts of live oxen, horses candles, home-made delicacies and furniture and other items that have traditionally been presented to kings, brave warriors, and other leaders. The gifts are being put to use at the new KMG Center, which was inaugurated as part of the festival. The KMG cornerstone bears the inscriptions: “To promote gender equality and equity, women’s and human rights, and to contribute toward sustainable development, KMG was established in 1997.”

“When we were walking into the soccer stadium, Ambassador Clarke said the closest thing he had ever witnessed to such a crowd was when Mandela met President Neyrere in Tanzania ten years ago,” Gebre told the assembled throng. “Today we see that ordinary people have done an extraordinary thing. You have dared to think the unthinkable and you have inspired others with your action. Our children will have clearer and lauder voices than ours, with dreams far beyond ours. The people of Kembatta have set an example for Ethiopia and the world, you would never know how much I am proud of you.”

When KMG began its work, FGE was universally practiced in many areas of this region. Girls who undergo the painful primitive surgery, often without anesthesia, endure lifelong physical side effects. Many die in childbirth along with otherwise healthy babies. Thousands of young couples and their parents, including women who once earned their income from circumcising young girls, are forswearing the practice. Today, young couples increasingly denounce the practice and write their own wedding vows to reflect a new sense of gender equity.

Scarring from FGE is also believed to contribute to the spread of HIV-AIDS among women. Over the past few years, in schools and churches and mosques and in the open air, community dialogues were begun in which old and young, women and men, community and religious leaders learned about the harmful effects of FGE and HIV-AIDS. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Envoy to Africa for HIV-AIDS who visited KMG’s program in 2004, and observed Community Capacity Enhancement - Community Conversations initiative in action in Alaba he said … “I felt that I’d had a rare glimpse of the future, and it gave me hope”

KMG envisages a society where women are free from all forms of discrimination and violence against them and attain justice, equity and equality to improve their lives and the society at large. We must strengthen the gains in the fight against FGE and other harmful customary practices.

“Using the strategies and approaches hitherto shown incredible results, particularly, continued Community Conversations, we need to upscale and expand the good practices and experiences gained to our neighbours in adjacent zones of Hadiya and Woleyita and continue in Southern Ethiopia Nations, Nationalities and People's Regional State (SEN-NPRS) and in the rest of the country”, said Gebre.

The glorious day ended with the traditional blessing by the elders of the region.

KMG also has programs focused on livelihood, environment, and health and operates in rural Ethiopia, using women’s wisdom, and communities’ insight and is bringing particular types of changes in a dynamic system linking ecology, economy and society, in a sustainable manner.