BEADS for Education hosted our first Coming of Age Ceremony in the Kajiado District of Kenya without Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) on August 20, 2005. Women around the world commemorated this event by having full moon ceremonies of their own on the same day.  Each year we host several ceremonies, including one shared by our Walkathon participants each January. Our goals are to support the Maasai traditions of this critical rite of passage from girl to womanhood and to eliminate the cutting.  Without our financial support (each ceremony costs about $500) most families would simply dispense with this new tradition and continue the old practices. You can help eradicate FGM in our regions by donating to a Coming of Age Ceremony.

...

It is Esther Tinayo’s coming of age ceremony. Esther’s mother is the midwife and the female circumciser. Esther is a BEADS sponsored girl aged approximately 13years and in 9th grade at Rombo Girls School in Loitokitok, Kenya. She is on her term two break from school and it is time for her to graduate from one stage to another - from childhood to adulthood.

A girl in the Maasai culture only has one ceremony to undergo to graduate to adulthood and it is done during the full moon. It is a time that most girls look up to because they would be considered grown up and when addressed the name changes from “ndito” to a “siangiki” The ceremony entails cutting “Emuratare”....