Hero teacher shelters girls from FGM, early marriages
By Lilian Kaivilu
James Lokuk patrols Morpus Primary School compound in West Pokot County. It is a cloudy afternoon and a few days to the New Year. All schools are closed. However, it is not yet holiday time for Lokuk, the school head teacher. The government school also serves as a rescue centre for girls saved from forced early marriages and female genital mutilation (FGM).
It is a Wednesday afternoon and there are about 10 girls in the school compound. They are all under 18 years of age. Here, Lokuk wears the hat of a head teacher during school sessions.
But during holidays and weekends, he serves as a father and caretaker to the young girls escaping harmful cultural practices.
“I have to be here throughout; including during the holidays to ensure that all the girls are safe. We cannot have our Christmas holidays elsewhere as some of the girls still face the threat of remarriage,” says Lokuk. A few steps from him, there is a group of young girls standing in one of the classrooms.
This season, just like past December holidays, a number of girls are in this school. “It is like their home,” Lokuk says. The eight girls converse in low tones as a team. A closer look at their faces reveals desolation and pain. But their strength is evident when they start narrating their stories. Chebet (not her real name) was rescued from an early marriage in 2017 then aged 11.
“To me, this is a prayer answered,” says Chebet. Her journey from Kacheliba in Pokot North to Morpus Primary School was not easy. She recounts the horrendous trek that brought her into the safe haven that she has since called home.
The second born in a family of eight children arrived at the school two weeks after leaving the home where she had been married. Chebet was forced to undergo female genital mutilation in May 2017. Immediately after, her parents handed her over for marriage.
“A man came home to pick me. I was told he is my husband and I had to follow him home. I was given tight security; heavily guarded. I was unhappy,” recounts a tearful Chebet.
Chebet’s experience reflects the grim picture of 12 million other girls globally who are married every year before the age of 18. Sadly, many girls undergo FGM to usher them into marriage. Despite being illegal, at least 200 million women and girls aged between 15 and 49 have undergone the cut. Although there has been progress in the fight against child marriages and other harmful cultural practices, UNICEF estimates more than 150 million additional girls will marry before their 18th birthday by 2030 if action is not taken.
In order to avert such cases, United Nations Population Fund UNFPA Kenya, in partnership with World Vision, has been supporting Child Protection Project, an initiative aimed at protecting young girls from early marriages and female genital mutilation in West Pokot.
The initiative has seen over 400 girls rescued from the harmful cultural practices since 2003. According to Lokuk, the youngest girl in the school is aged 12 while the oldest is 17. He has been the school head teacher since 1998.
Mentorship programme
In 2003, Lokuk observed rampant cases of school dropouts amongst young girls and shared his concerns with the school board. The institution was a day school then. The board agreed to have all the girls from the school start boarding. “We felt this would protect them from the snare of child marriages. There were 48 girls out of a total school population of 101.”
With the rising numbers of the girls each year, Lokuk says, the school sought well wishers who provided mattresses, blankets and other essential items needed by girls in school.
To ensure the girls continue with education, the school, which serves as the only girls rescue centre in the entire West Pokot County, started a mentorship programme for 50 girls from different parts of the county. The girls, all Form Four leavers, are currently pursuing a six-month technical course on beadwork, Information Communication Technology (ICT) and catering among other programmes.
And to re-integrate the girls into normal family life, World Vision’s Gender and Development Programme Officer George Ndung’u, says the organisation is already in the process of getting foster homes for all the girls. “Beginning 2020, we are planning to have foster homes for the girls,” he said adding that the World Vision plans to train 100 community health volunteers and teachers ahead of the integration process.
Milka* a 17-year-old girl recounts how a teacher from a nearby primary school rescued her from forced marriage. “I came to the rescue centre in January 2018 after escaping an arranged marriage at home. I knew I had to undergo the cut before I could be married to a polygamous man. I feared I would die if I underwent the cut,” she says.
UNFPA humanitarian programme specialist John Wafula commended the stakeholdersfor their efforts, adding: “Through the anti-FGM board, we’ve organised for meetings with the administration to ensure existing laws and policies are implemented to protect women and girls against harmful practices,” said Wafula.
