In the News
For the German media response to the VMMC Experience Project, click here.
Local news headlines of egregious problems from the VMMC campaign have vanished shortly after publication. Below are articles that have persisted despite immense political pressure.
At least 312 minors in Phalombe have sued Family Heath Services (FHS), formerly PSI Malawi, demanding compensation for assault, battery, pain, suffering, disfigurement and deformity of their private parts.
FHS is being accused of circumcising the children without the approval of their parents or their guardians.
Mass circumcisions without parental consent are continuing in 2023.
Malawi High Court Judge Dingiswayo Madise, in his recent ruling, also lambasted global health [NGO] Population Services International (PSI) which runs a voluntary circumcision campaign in Malawi aimed at reducing the spread of HIV/AIDS, for defending the case.
[I]t’s now emerging that the decision to implement the circumcision campaign in southern and eastern Africa was not based on robust scientific evidence, but just assumed that the results from clinical trials would safely “scale” to the real world without thinking through the cultural implications.
September 2020: PEPFAR quietly slashes VMMC funding, raises the minimum age to 15 years (after 13 years of targeting children), and hands over operations to local governments due to “a corrupt operational environment.”
A new evaluation report financed by the US Government, shows the much praised Voluntary Medical Male Circumcision (VMMC) in Kenya may have been built on falsified data.
As the president of Uganda Yoweri Museveni launched his presidential fast-track initiative on ending HIV and AIDS in Uganda by 2030, he strongly criticized circumcision as a way to prevent contraction of HIV/AIDS[.] … “I have always heard people and partners saying that when you are circumcised you don’t contract the virus … That’s nonsense … before we started [the ABC–”Abstain, Be faithful, use a Condom”] campaign the HIV prevalence was at 18%, then it dropped to 6%, but when they started this talk of circumcision it confused the masses, then it went up to now 7.3% [a 22% increase].”
See Rosenberg et al., 2018: “Medically circumcised older men in a rural South African community had higher HIV prevalence than uncircumcised men… The impression given from circumcision policy and dissemination of prior trial findings that those who are circumcised are safer sex partners may be incorrect … and needs to be countered by interventions, such as educational campaigns.”
Okoth Othieno [West Budama North MP] requested Parliament to compel Ministry of Health to explain why the health workers at Busolwe General Hospital in Butaleja District are forcing parents to circumcise their boys in exchange for medical treatment. …
“Why is the Ministry of Health imposing an alien culture of compulsory circumcision on the people of West Budama North?”
[T]he personnel from the hospital who recruited the minor from Majome Primary School in Mazowe district for the procedure were reportedly ‘agents’ of a non-governmental organisation, Population Services International (PSI), who were paid commission for the people they bring in for circumcision. …
The minor’s parents withheld their consent. But on January 29, the boy was circumcised anyway and had to be taken home by an ambulance since he could not walk.
At least 17 boys of school going age in Goromonzi were recently forced to seek urgent medical attention after an unknown organisation circumcised and abandoned them.
Campaign coordinators admit that where men refuse circumcision, children are targeted instead:
[T]he majority of the patrons were children from the age of 10 to 14 years. … “We cannot say that we did not do well considering the challenges that were there.”
Per a 2017 VMMC progress report, while the initial target was sexually active men ages 15–49, “it soon became clear that almost half of the clients coming for VMMC services were … in the 10 to 14 year-old age group.”
See VMMC Abductions.
[B]etween 2009 [local VMMC roll-out] and 2015, there was an increase of 14.8 per cent in the proportion of adult Mozambicans who are HIV positive. …
Among adolescents and youths … women are three times more likely than men to be infected.
Shockingly, IMASIDA found that knowledge of how HIV is transmitted and how it can be prevented had declined since 2009. Only 56 per cent of men and 47 per cent of women interviewed in 2015 knew that it is possible to reduce the risk of HIV infection by using condoms, and by limiting sexual relations to one, non-infected partner. …
Tete is the province where the lowest percentage of men are circumcised – yet Tete is also the province with the lowest HIV prevalence rate.
English translation:
Doubtful Methods: Organisations demand the stop of circumcision programmes in Africa
Several organisations now advise against circumcising boys in the fight against the HIV virus: This could increase the spread even further.
English translation:
Questionable Development Aid
The WHO wants to prevent HIV infections with the circumcision of boys and men, Germany supports this. Is this useful?
English translation:
WHO’s circumcision campaign in Africa under massive criticism
English translation:
Activists call for immediate stop of boy circumcisions in Africa
20 million men in Africa are to be circumcised. The advocates believe this to be an effective tool in the fight against AIDS. Activists, on the other hand, demand the immediate end of circumcision. Daniel Pelz, Berlin.
As the discredited campaign to circumcise men in Swaziland to prevent HIV infection continues to fail, two government ministries are now targeting schoolboys.
A 1-month-old subjected to UNICEF’s “early infant male circumcision” (EIMC) campaign faces permanent sexual damage.
Another EIMC botch, in which the child almost lost his testicles, was reported via email to the VMMC Experience Project by an anonymous health worker at the International Hospital Kampala in August 2017. We forwarded the complaint to UNICEF (no response).
The article does not name the NGO at fault, though Millennium Villages is one NGO reported in our investigation to target school children without parental consent in the area (Kakamega County).
“I am from the Luo community and in my culture we don’t allow circumcision,” one parent lamented.
A 14-year-old boy with epilepsy had a fatal reaction to anaesthesia while undergoing VMMC.
Deaths from tetanus infection following VMMC in children and adults are known to the CDC. (Tetanus vaccination is now a prerequisite for undergoing VMMC.) Our investigation also uncovered a death from hemorrhaging following a VMMC performed on a 3-year-old child in Pallisa District, Uganda.
A 9-year-old boy was picked up on the side of the road by USAID-funded workers, lured with candy, and subjected to a botched circumcision that cost him his penis. His father found him “dumped close to home.”
This article has been retracted from the Malawi News Agency’s archives.
This article has been retracted from The Namibian’s archives.
The benefits of circumcision are exaggerated, but the risks are real.
[T]he people took to task the US for “prioritizing sex” and not real development.
For historical context, see our Racial Analysis.
Baylor Uganda circumcised Iteso school children without informing parents. One child ran away from home while another has refused to return to school.
“I asked the boy to tether the cattle in the bush but he did not come out of bed. When I checked him, I found blood flowing all over his private parts. I asked him what had happened and he told us they had been circumcised.”
This article has been retracted from the Malawi News Agency’s archives.
Ein Einschnitt fürs Leben? (An Incision for Life?)
After 15 years in the Ministry of Health, he was let go because of HIV infection. In a support group he gradually got back on his feet. “Thousands share my fate,” he learned there. “The circumcision campaign is a deadly deception.”
In a surgically performed circumcision, the wound is closed by suturing skin from the mid-shaft to the head of the penis. As shaft skin is drawn upward, peno-scrotal webbing and reduced penile length can result.
“Whenever I transferred from bathtub to wheelchair, my lower end always swiped the cold floor. With 3 centimeters missing, I don’t have that problem anymore.”
This article has been retracted from The Star’s archives.
“First we have to clear the notion that circumcision is an effective remedy against HIV/AIDS [which] has fueled the spread of the disease… [T]here is an urgent need to re-educate [youth] on the misconception.” … The trend has promoted the spread of the virus in the county.
This article has been retracted from The Observer’s archives.
A new study of 314 female sex workers (FSWs) in Makindye division found that more than half of respondents falsely believe that once a man is circumcised, protection is not necessary during sex.
False beliefs and life-threatening circumcision hyperbole persist among women, and are correlated with VMMC messaging itself. A 2016 study found that “30% of women at R1, and significantly more (41%) at R2, incorrectly believed MC [male circumcision] is fully protective for men against HIV. Women also greatly overestimated the protection MC offers against STIs. The proportion of women who [falsely] believed MC reduces a woman’s HIV risk if she has sex with a man who is circumcised increased significantly (50% to 70%).”
Population Services International (PSI) spokesperson Paidamoyo Magaya was unreachable for comment. PSI sponsors the circumcision drive in Zimbabwe.
A Zimbabwe demographic and health survey conducted by the country’s statistics agency in 2010 and 2011 revealed that men between ages 15 and 49 who were circumcised were slightly more likely to be HIV positive than uncircumcised men.
These results appear to be almost applicable to South Africa and Swaziland, where circumcision programs were implemented in 2009 to reduce the spread of HIV. In most cases, circumcised men are believed to be engaging in unsafe sex.
Despite these findings, HIV/AIDS expert Professor Gabriel Anabwani says there is no need to conduct further research to prove the effectiveness of circumcision in curbing HIV transmission. … “[M]ale circumcision on its own is more effective than most vaccines. Even if a vaccine for HIV was found today it won’t be as effective as male circumcision.”
[M]ost of her circumcised clients were not willing to use condoms. “I have problems with circumcised men because they do not want to use condoms. They always argue that because they have been circumcised they did not need to use [them.]”
A similar pattern was found in our investigation. Sex workers’ stories are available in the “VMMC and women” interview compilation under Videos (see also Sexology Analysis).
There is an upsurge of cases of people who got infected with HIV following circumcision.
Speaking with teary eyes, Izimba curses the day he read a sign post at the private clinic that offers free male medical circumcision.
Although the decision to be circumcised is supposed to be voluntary, men have consistently been pressured to participate.
