Source : All Africa

A Ugandan team has created a mobile app to link female genital mutilation (FGM) survivors and at-risk girls with services in real time.

 

The multilingual app, Axces mobile, was the brainchild of Joseph Mulabbi whose personal experience led to its creation. "While at school, a friend (from the Sabiny tribe in Kapchorwa, Eastern Uganda) lost her sister at the age of 16 after she underwent FGM. With the nearest health centre over 20km away, and with a poor road network, the girl bled to death while being rushed to hospital," he said.

The national prevalence rate for FGM in Uganda is just 0.3 per cent, yet in the six districts where it is practised, the rate is much higher. In Kapchorwa, 13 per cent of girls and women undergo FGM, according to the 2017 Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting survey report by the Uganda Bureau Of Statistics and UNICEF. Axces Mobile enables the user to make a toll-free call to a community volunteer (village volunteer agent) to report incidences of FGM. The agent then identifies the type of service required and connects the survivor with a service provider.

In Somalia, over 90% or more of girls and women, have been subjected to female genital mutilation. Despite the practice having devastating health ramifications for women and girls - including pain, bleeding, permanent disability, and even death - discussion over how to end the harmful tradition, remains taboo.FGM involves the partial or total removal of external female genitalia or other injuries to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons. The practice has no health benefits for girls and women.