Uganda Education News: Education Ministry to start special interventions on FGM

July 2, 2009 The Minister of Education and Sports Geraldine Namirembe Bitamazire has promised parliament that her ministry will begin special interventions to tackle the problem of Female Genital Mutilation in the districts of Kapchorwa, Bukwo and Nakapiripiriti. Bitamazire says the ministry will start special sensitization programmes on the practice of FGM in the various schools in these districts such that the school going children can understand that FGM an undesirable cultural activity which needs to be stopped. She has told the Parliamentary Committee on Equal Opportunities which she was facing that her ministry will also find a special programme for the girls in the schools in these areas during the seasons of FGM. Bitamazire says for example during such periods the schools will be required to keep all girls in boarding such that these girls can escape FGM threats in those seasons. She says however to solve the problem of FGM, there is need for an inter- ministerial approach to tackling the problem. Bitamazire says for instance other ministries like the Ministry of Gender, Labor and Social Development, the Ministry of Health among others should also participate in the fight against FGM. And her is the rest of it.