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Title: Male Circumcision Policy - Advocacy
Location:
Global
Categories: Human Rights
Health
Culture
Status:
In Planning
Timeline:
Ongoing
Description:
The practice of routine medical circumcision of males remains the norm across the world. Male ritual circumcision involves various degrees of foreskin removal, while female circumcision ranges from clitoridectomy to vulvectomy to infibulations, known as Pharaonic circumcision - the most severe and mutilating form. Nevertheless, whether past or present, ritual circumcision serves cultural purposes, as opposed to justification as a health promoting practice
This project examines the history and continuing debate surrounding this surgery, and places it within the context of HIV/AIDS Prevention.
Background:
Since 1989, a considerable number of epidemiological studies have reported a major relationship between lack of male circumcision (MC) and risk for HIV infection through heterosexual intercourse. Male circumcision is known to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV, but few studies have been performed to assess its acceptability among either children or adults in sub-Saharan Africa.
Compelling epidemiological evidence showing a significant association between lack of male circumcision and HIV infection has prompted calls for consideration of male circumcision interventions as a strategy for reducing HIV prevalence in highly affected areas where circumcision is little practiced and transmission is predominantly heterosexual. Little is known about whether male circumcision interventions would be acceptable or feasible in traditionally non-circumcisng areas of Africa.
2003’s Kenya Demographic Health Survey Report points out that 83 per cent of Kenyan men are circumcised. Though the proportion of the circumcised varies with province and ethnicity. 89.4 per cent of circumcised men were aged 20 – 24, and 1 per cent was HIV infected, while among the 14. 1 per cent uncircumcised, 20- 24 per cent were HIV infected.
These results have led to calls for male circumcision to be considered as an additional HIV prevention strategy.
Objectives:
To disseminate information and educate youths on the Male Circumcision Policy.
Promote male circumcision policy through Sensitizing and creating awareness within the context of the general enhancement of health care services among the uncircumcised youth populace.
To carry out a yearly report sourced from existing policies and other epidemiological surveys on impact of the Male Circumcision Policy to the Kenyan Government through NACC.
To campaign for a seat in the Advisory Board in the ministry of Youths Affairs and Sports on development programs for expanding quality male circumcision services.
To partner with the Youth Ministry by using their youth resource centres as a platform especially in the rural areas to discuss and sensitize them on Male circumcision issues as a common concern.
Engage the media to encourage youths across the nation to meet, interact and discuss on male circumcision, especially the groups related to the spread and prevention of HIV/AIDS.
Engage the ministry of health and culture, to sensitize the need for MC, In Kenya all but four communities do not practice circumcision culturally.
Lobby the Health experts in health sectors to address and run forums with traditional Circumcisers, Traditional Circumcisers use the same blade for several boys, a practice that needs to be eliminated as it increases rate of infection; other traditional Circumcisers don't remove the entire foreskin, which is the medical way to do it - they just cut off a bit of it
Milestones:
A new circumcision policy for men aimed at reducing HIV infection rates has been published by the GoK. The policy, stipulating how all willing Kenyan men, irrespective of their age, will undergo circumcision, sets into motion the use of the surgical procedure as a standard HIV prevention strategy for the country. Titled Policy on Male Circumcision in Kenya 2008, the document also wants circumcision to be promoted and delivered to males of all ages in a manner that is culturally sensitive to minimize the stigma that may be associated with an uncircumcised person.
In as much as the Kenyan government has embarked on an ambitious national programme to fast track the national rollout of male circumcision as a means of preventing HIV, a handful of ethnic communities in Kenya - including the Luo, Suba and Teso in western Kenya and the Turkana in northwestern Kenya - do not practice circumcision culturally. Secondly, traditional Circumcisers use the same blade for several boys, a practice that needs to be eliminated as it increases rate of infection; other traditional Circumcisers don't remove the entire foreskin, which is the medical way to do it - they just cut off a bit of it
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