Intervention on Harmful Traditional Practices and Gender-Based Violence, Ethiopia
Church World Service and
Ethiopian Orthodox Church Development and Inter-church Aid Commission
(EOC/DICAC)
In the Goncha area of Amhara State, girls undergo genital mutilation (circumcision) as preparation for womanhood--a common practice in many parts of Africa. Most are also married off very young--some even before the age of ten--as part of local cultural practice.
Community members believe that a girl who has not been circumcised will have trouble or not be able to give birth, or that she and her husband will not be able to consummate their marriage.
Women and girls suffer for life from the harmful traditional practice of female genital mutilation. They experience pain during the operation, and, in the long-term, lose interest in being with their husbands, and suffer psychological damage.
Families of girls strive to marry them off early partly for economic reasons, because the girls are usually placed in the custody of in-laws and the financial responsibility shifts to that family. Families are also concerned that their daughters or granddaughters not remain unmarried or that they marry before they--the parents or grandparents-- pass on and no one is left to care for the girls. But marrying early keeps girls from gaining an education and keeps them from participating fully in the economic life of the community and decision-making processes.
Married girls also often suffer from abuse and violence at the hands of their husbands--another traditional practice.
A Church World Service-supported project of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church is helping to raise awareness among women, men, girls, and boys in the communities on the harm that these traditional practices bring to girls and the community.
Through the EOC project, men and women are improving their household incomes. EOC is also working to increase school enrollment rates of girls while decreasing their drop-out rates. Women and girls are learning to manage sustainable income generating projects, are raising their self-esteem, and gaining a voice in decision-making.
Support for Church World Service helps make this program possible.
Updated 4/2/2008
More On • Women and Children