Beatrice Chelangat This is Me

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1. 1. www.newvision.co.ug

   www.newvision.co.ug/D/9/31/554 - [Cached]

   Published on: 3/19/2007   Last Visited: 3/19/2007

   Beatrice Chelangat, the REACH's programme officer, says the number of girls being mutilated in Kapchorwa and Bukwa districts has dropped by over 80% in the last decade.
   
   She says in the past, advocates against FGM were using girls as change agents but around 2003, REACH began involving the surgeons and mentors in the campaign. She says the efforts paid off.
   ...
   Chelangat attributes the success of the programme to the involvement of the local leaders who have passed by-laws against the practice.
   
   She, however, says the implementation of these by-laws is not effective as the penalty of sh40,000 is too small compared to the sh300,000 the surgeons earn during circumcision period.
   
   She says the law is silent on the issue but local authorities are using it ostensibly against serious bodily harm to fight the practice.
   
   "That is why we took the campaign to the women, mothers, surgeons and mentors," she says. "It has worked even better. Last year, we made a strong statement when most surgeons refused to circumcise the girls. But this year, we want to push for a specific law against FGM."
   
   Chelangat says the issue is complex since the community is still divided. Her biggest challenge is to find an alternative income for the ‘ex-surgeons' and mentors.
   
   "They are still vulnerable, especially because this was their biggest source of income. We need to do something before 2008," she says.
   
   Indeed, an alternative income is Sanani's biggest worry because she is looking after four orphaned grandchildren.

2. 2. peopleandplanet.net > reproductive health > features > struggling to end female circumcision in uganda

   www.peopleandplanet.net/doc.ph - [Cached]

   Published on: 9/21/2004   Last Visited: 7/22/2006

   Beatrice Chelangat, REACH Project Manager, Kapchorwa, Uganda. Photo: Don Hinrichsen
   ...
   Beatrice Chelangat, REACH Programme Manager in Kapchorwa, in front of a mural advocating the elimination of violence against women and children
   ...
   Beatrice Chelangat, REACH's Programme Manager in Kapchorwa, has been a community activist most of her life. "Our journey has not been easy, but we have noted a big change in attitudes regarding FGC," she explains. "Out of 10,000 Sabine girls only 1 per cent underwent genital cutting in 2003/2004."
   
   In some communities change has been swift and dramatic. In the remote village of Cheptuya, buried at the end of a valley and reachable only by a washed out road, FGC dropped from 90 girls in the mid-1990s to 30 girls in 1999/2000 to zero by 2002. "There the village elders stamped it out," says Chelangat.

3. 3. UNFPA: News

   www.unfpa.org/news/news.cfm?ID - [Cached]

   Published on: 2/16/2003   Last Visited: 7/12/2006

   Beatrice Chelangat, REACH's Programme Manager in Kapchorwa, has been a community activist most of her life. "Our journey has not been easy, but we have noted a big change in attitudes regarding FGC," she explains. "Out of 10,000 Sabine girls only 1 per cent underwent genital cutting in 2003 and 2004."
   
   In some communities change has been swift and dramatic. In the remote village of Cheptuya, buried at the end of a valley and reachable only by a washed out road, FGC dropped from 90 girls in the mid-1990s to 30 girls in 2000 to zero by 2002. "There the village elders stamped it out," says Chelangat.
   
   Another reason why the practice is dying out fast in some areas is the fact that the project also focused on the cutters themselves. Sitting by a tent in a rain-soaked field is 80-year-old Kokop Night, a former cutter who, thanks to the project, has renounced the practice and vowed never to take up the knife again. Speaking through an interpreter she explains how she got involved. "My mother was a cutter, and her mother before her, as far back as anyone can remember," she explains in a harsh, scratchy voice.