1200 Kajiado girls transition to womanhood in alternative rite that shuns FGM

The ARP training of girls ends with a beauty pageant that enhances the girls’ confidence, self-esteem and acceptance of the ARP graduation transition to woman hood.

KENYA: Eleven-year-old Shiluni Shirim glows in her traditional Maasai regalia as she delivers an acceptance speech at Rombo Girls Primary School in Oloitoktok, Kajiado County.

She had just won the cat-walk in a pageant to showcase the girls’ physical beauty, intellect and temerity as a precursor to the African Medical Research Foundation (Amref) community-led alternative rites of passage (ARP) ceremony.