As corruption carries the day in Uganda and Kenya, agents of VMMC partner with school administrations by giving them money to gather small boys and tell them that if they get circumcised they’ll never get HIV, and that AIDS kills only uncircumcised people. They use convincing language to trap these innocent children to go for circumcision. They are told further that after circumcision they will not be infected with HIV or penile cancer. They give children free sweets, some give toys, money, etc. Then they take these children in trucks to their circumcising centres. These children are circumcised, carried back to their region, and dumped there without further medical and social support.

Bearing in mind that the parents of these children were not informed of these atrocities, they are shocked to see their children turn up at home circumcised. Unprepared to deal with the healing of their boys, many parents borrow money for further treatment of their children. I have met many parents who are furious with the VMMC agents - who are paid according to number of children they bring in for circumcision on quota-based commissions - for hijacking their children and circumcising them without their knowledge and consent.

The mass circumcision campaign is violating the rights of children through forced circumcision as a way to end HIV in Africa based on blatant lies. Serious complications and even deaths have been reported from both circumcisions carried out for cultural reasons on children, as well as from clinical male circumcisions on infants, children, youth and men.

My work in anti-circumcision and HIV prevention

Because we are in the midst of an epidemic of fake news, spreading blatant lies that circumcision prevents diseases faster than a virus infects, I believe in education as the key to changing long-established patterns of social behaviour. It can help in combating this propaganda from the WHO and UNAIDS that circumcision prevents diseases. It’s through practically oriented sex education that our children will have the awareness, skills, and knowledge to acquire the attitudes necessary for a healthy life without being circumcised.

I work as Director of The VMMC Experience Project in Africa. I work in the hard regions where VMMC is a business with millions of dollars being poured in to circumcise children. Challenging this established system, you are regarded as an enemy of state policy and an enemy of those pushing this big business. We have received several threats, been chased, blocked from taking circumcision live videos or pictures in clinics or in village homes. Sometimes you become powerless when threatened often. We come for your assistance to escape forced circumcision.

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