My goal is the elimination of female genital mutilation, a traditional practice in my community, Dodoma in Central Tanzania, which affects most girls between the age of 8 and 15 years old.

This practice originates from a cultural belief that a girl won’t become a woman unless she is circumcised. Men won’t marry a girl who is not circumcised, and since every girl wants to get married, and society undermines women who aren’t married, the girls will go through with it.

The practice is painful. Many girls pass away, many get infected with HIV/AIDS because the female circumcisers reuse the same instrument several times; many others bleed to death when they give birth.

People have to be educated to understand the negative effects of this practice. I want to conduct seminars with community elders and female circumcisers, and other seminars only for girls, to give them a voice, the power to say no, and to explain why they don’t want to be circumcised.

I believe that if we open people’s minds, we will see a change. I will soon get my degree in education, and I’ll have strategies for teaching. But what I want most is to build confidence in myself, so that I can deal with different issues affecting my community.

Student of Education, University of Dar es Salaam
Member, Global Student Leadership program, Manhattanville College