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By Ronald Kintu
Mid this year, development partners re-echoed the increased incidence of female genital mutilation (FGM), as well as gender-based violence in Karamoja and Sebei regions during the COVID-19 lockdown.
The reports showed a rise in FGM to over 10% in Sebei region among girls aged between 13 and 17 years and this is one of the reasons why world Champion Joshua Cheptegei has started a war on the vice.
“I am pleased to have officially launched the Josh Chep Foundation. We hope to use this foundation to promote education, fight FGM, and boost people’s incomes,” he noted recently.
The world athletics icon, together with his team, have a mission of working in synergy with communities, and harnessing their full potential to achieve quality and sustainable livelihoods.
The strides towards the foundation’s vision of a community that enjoys socio-economic development and security are slowly but steadily taking shape, thanks to various activities. The foundation has played a crucial role in pushing for the realisation of basic human rights for women, men, boys and girls since 2016 as a community-based organisation, among other areas of intervention. Scholarships, free school materials and health services are among the other good deeds rendered to the communities.
