AFRICA: NGO's Taking Children from School to Circumcise Them Without Parents' Knowledge

In a post I published earlier this year, I talked about a case where US-funded organizations taking the liberty of simply kidnapping children off the streets and circumcising them without their parents' awareness or their consent.

This happened in Chipakuza Village, T/A Lundu in Chikhwawa, where a 9-yo boy had lost his entire penis, and his angry father was seeking to sue the Malawi Ministry of Health for damages.

It appears that NGOs are now simply going to schools and taking children away to have them circumcised, again, disregarding their parents' knowledge, consent, and/or cultural background; in some cases, parents are from a cultural background where the tribe traditionally does not circumcise.

It is not clear here whether the NGOs were being US-funded or not, in this case, although it could be assumed, given that "mass circumcision campaigns" are being funded and pushed by American organizations, and it's happened in the past.

UPDATE (8/3/2016):

Apparently the NGO responsible is Baylor Uganda and it is being sponsored by the CDC/PEPFAR, so this NGO is definitely being US-funded. Baylor Uganda's website can be accessed here.

Are the WHO and UNICEF aware that this is happening?

What is happening here is anything but "voluntary."

The original article can be accessed here.

Trouble after school circumcises pupils without parents consent

By Violet Namatsi, Citizen Digital

Published on  1 August 2016

Parents at Shikomari Primary School in Navakholo Constituency, Kakamega County are up in arms after the heat teacher of the institution allowed a non-governmental organisation to circumcise their children without their consent.

According to the parents, the NGO has been visiting the school since last week and circumcising their children aged 5 and above without informing them.

Led by Joseph Otieno and Marygoeti Onbonyo, the parents claim that the school’s management went against their culture and tradition and now want the Ministry of Education to intervene in the matter.

The parents now claim that the issue could lead to a breakdown of their marriages, giving the example of one boy who was disowned by his father, a Bukusu, for being circumcised while at his in laws’ place.

“You cannot do anything you want to my child without asking me first. I am from the Luo community and in my culture we don’t allow circumcision,” one parent lamented.

“He is turning away parents using abusive language instead of explaining what exactly happened. Next week they have exams and the students can’t sit exams while in pain,” another parent commented.

A woman, who is a parent at the school, said the female pupils were separated from the male pupils, and then the male pupils were inspected to find out whether or not they were circumcised. The male pupils were then told to get into a vehicle and transported to the place where the circumcisions were done.

Another parent stated that in their culture the circumcised child must return home with the foreskin, but in this case she was called to pick up her child from the school while already circumcised, a matter that angered the child’s father.

“I don’t know who to ask for the foreskin and I don’t know what to answer as the child’s mother about where the skin is,” she lamented.

Speaking to Citizen Digital, a Standard Four pupil said that the members of the organisation went to the school and circumcised them, adding that his wound is infected.

“They came to the school and took us where they circumcised us and called my mother to come pick me up. Right now the wound is infected,” he said.

However, speaking to Citizen Digital on phone, the school’s head teacher John Musungu rubbished the parents’ claims saying the NGO had registered the pupils who wanted to be circumcised following an agreement with their parents.

“We have an NGO that circumcises the children for free but only for willing parents and willing children. So they came and registered the pupils in school. However one pupil lied that his parents had given consent,” he said.

The head teacher attributed the issue to propaganda by enemies of the school saying: “Some people who don’t like the school have blown up the issue to the point of making phone calls using different numbers to create the impression that there are many complainants,” he said.

Related Posts:

MALAWI: USAID-Funded Program Kidnapping Children for Circumcision - Boy Loses Penis

MASS CIRCUMCISION CAMPAIGNS: The Emasculation and Harassment of Africa

Where Circumcision Doesn't Prevent HIV

Where Circumcision Doesn't Prevent HIV II

INTACTIVISTS: Why We Concern Ourselves

JAMA: Lead Article is a "Study" on Bribing Men to Get Circumcised

AFRICA: Creating Circumcision "Volunteers"

AFRICA: Boys Circumcised at School Without Parents' Knowledge

As if it weren't enough that male circumcision is being promoted in Africa under the dubious pretext of HIV prevention using questionable "research", and as if it weren't enough that parents are being brainwashed to have their children circumcised, organizations in Africa are taking the liberty of going to schools and circumcising children without their parent's knowledge.

Since "mass circumcision" campaigns began to be rolled out across Africa, promoters of male circumcision were careful to really push that the circumcision of males would be "voluntary," where it can mean that, at least theoretically, men would not be circumcised without their fully informed consent. 'Voluntary" can also mean that parents could "volunteer" their children to be circumcised. (Intactivists, such as myself, contest that a child forcibly circumcised without his own consent is no "volunteer.") "Voluntary Male Medical Circumcision", or "VMMC", it was called, for short.

But now, it seems that "voluntary" doesn't even matter anymore, and organizations are taking it upon themselves to visit schools and circumcising male students without even consulting parents on the matter.

In a recent case, at least 25 boys were circumcised at Oderai Primary School in Soroti sub-county, Soroti District, prompting furious protest by parents, some who were extremely distraught that their children were circumcised without their permission. The boys were circumcised at Soroti Health Centre III in an exercise that was facilitated by NGO Baylor Uganda.

District medical workers came, and a woman filling in for the head teacher (she was away on sick leave) simply authorized them.

When queried, the official in charge of the facility where the boys were circumcised, Harriet Amuat, insisted they were carrying out a government programe and Soroti District administration had signed a partnership with Baylor Uganda to fund the circumcision exercise in Teso sub-region.

The question is, who gave the go-ahead with a "circumcision exercise" that would forcibly circumcise healthy, non-consenting children, completely sidelining their parents?

Who held these talks?

Who made the preposition that children were to be circumcised without informing their parents?

Who accepted?

That's what I'd like to know.

Incidentally, Baylor Uganda is funded by none other than PEPFAR and the CDC. The CDC, a strong partner and supporter of BIPAI’s efforts in Uguanda, provides a majority of the Baylor-Uganda $24 million annual budget, through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

American organizations are essentially bankrolling the forced circumcision of healthy, non-consenting children. Some may argue that "parents can give consent," but in this case even parents were disregarded.

Not the first time
This might be dismissed as a "one-time accident," but unfortunately, this is not the first time this has happened; a similar case happened recently in Eldoret, Uasin Gishu, just this April.

In this case, 30 children were forcibly circumcised by NGO Impact Research Development Organisation (IRDO) based in Kisumu, which has a clinic in Eldoret. Apparently the children were lured by strangers into cars with sweets.

Here too, parents protested the fact that their children had been forcibly circumcised without their knowledge.

It appears here too, the NGO has ties with PEPFAR, as evidenced by the "about" tab on their Facebook Page.

In yet an even earlier incident, high school students were being targeted at Embakwe High School.

Here too parents were furious to find that their children came home circumcised.

I cannot find any reference as to who gave the go-ahead, and who financed it in the linked article.

Wrong on so many levels
First off, the "mass circumcision" roll-outs are based on questionable material.

Even if the so-called "research" could be lent any credibility, circumcision would still be considered so ineffective at preventing HIV, that circumcised males and their partners must be urged to wear condoms. There is not a single doctor or "researcher" that can deny this fact.

If adult men wish to be circumcised, even being fully informed, that's one thing, but it is despicable that the procedure is being presented to parents as a "decision."

But lastly, it is simply horrific that children are being forcibly circumcised, completely disregarding their parents, and something needs to be done about it.

Was this an accident?

Or was it deliberate?

Those who authorized programs that go to schools and circumcise children without their parents' knowledge ought to be investigated and held responsible.

Relevant Links:

Parents protest forced circumcision of children

Anxiety in Eldoret after NGO ‘forcibly’ circumcises 30 boys

School circumcises pupils without parents knowledge

Muncie Circumcision Case: HIGHWAY ROBBERY

So apparently, a doctor can just simply get away with doing what he wants with your son. He could just cut off part of his penis, with or without your consent, and you're supposed to just live with it.

"Oops, I'm sorry" is somehow supposed to cover permanent damage.

One doctor Michael R. Burt was recently indicted in a lawsuit for circumcising a boy against his parents' express wishes.

What is sad is that the boy comes from a family where circumcision is not practiced, the parents believe circumcision is genital mutilation and they were making it a point to make sure this didn't happen to their children. Now, the boy will have to live being different than his family members.

Well, it looks like the jury has decided this doctor should get off the hook without paying any damages.

Burt's attorneys acknowledged their client had made an honest mistake, but insisted "no evidence was presented to indicate being circumcised would prevent the youth from having a happy and productive life."

As if resilience from abuse were even relevant.

With the proper counseling, victims of rape and child abuse grow up to have happy and fulfilling lives, but this does not excuse the actions of the perpetrator.

No amount of counseling is going to give this child his normal intact organs back.

He's going to have to live with permanently marred organs for the rest of his life, and his parents are going to have to live with the fact that a doctor abused them and their child, and there is legally nothing that they could do about it.

For whatever reason, one witness thought it gracious to downplay the sensitivity of the penis by stating that "a penis could not be used to read books published in Braille for the sight-impared."

For that matter, a clitoris can't be used for the same purpose either.

On the commentary pages for the articles linked to above, many defend this doctor for being "wonderful, caring and gracious," and that the child will be "just fine."

NOBODY KNOWS THIS FOR SURE.

Nobody knows that the child would indeed not resent the fact that he was forcibly without his consent, even against his parents' express wishes.

Dr. Burt may be wonderful, caring and gracious, but the court is pardoning him for being completely irresponsible.

Whether or not this boy will be OK or not is secondary. The fact of the matter is, the doctor went strictly against the parents' express wishes. Any way you slice it, circumcision is a permanent removal of part of a person's body.

A sad day in America it is when doctors simply aren't expected to be responsible for their actions.

This doctor is being completely irresponsible, and the courts are a disgusting shame for absolving him.

EDIT (same day): An afterthought I had:

Said one of the doctor's lawyers, "Let's pay (the boy) $15 a day until he dies? That's nonsense! [That would] open the courthouse door to every kid who's been circumcised."

Well, at least the children whose circumcisions were performed against the express wishes of the parents.

In other words folks, practicing justice is unfathomable because it would set an inconvenient precedent.

Heaven forbid doctors be held liable for reaping profit from non-therapeutic surgery on healthy, non-consenting individuals...