SHOCKING: HEALTH WORKERS INVOLVED IN TYPE 4 FGM IN EBONYI
Reporter : AMECHI ODO
Type four Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) in some parts of Ebonyi State, especially Afikpo South and Ikwo Local Government Areas, has persisted despite state wide campaign against the obnoxious practice in recent time.
Reports indicate that the most prevalent among the type four category is pressing of the clitoral glans of the girl child and it occurs mainly in some Health Centres.
Although latest survey by the UNICEF indicates that the prevalent rate of FGM in Ebonyi State has dropped from 26.2% to 5.2% between 2013 and 2018 for children from zero to 14 years, investigations show that those who still hold on to the practice have shied away from cutting but have resorted to pressing the clitoral glans of the female child.
The Gender Desk Officer in the State Ministry of Health, Mrs. Ngozi Roland, explained that major culprits in the latest findings were health workers who feigned ignorance of the health implications.
‘’They use hot water, they even use powder and some of them the Nurses say they did not know it is type of FGMC and they are teaching mothers to carry it out,’’ Mrs. Roland cried out.
In the last six years, the present administration in Ebonyi State in collaboration with UNICEF and UNDP embarked on the sensitization of local government authorities and community leaders to develop legal and customary instruments to curb FGMC practice.
The Chairman Traditional Rulers Council in Afikpo South, Ezeogo Charles Azuenya, expressed dismay that the practice had persisted in some areas despite efforts by the government and the communities to end it.
‘’We made several announcements warning people against that spelling laws prohibiting that but I am surprised to hear that Afikpo South were among those running red,’’ the traditional ruler lamented.
Corroborating this view, a lawmaker in the area, Mr. Wilfred Ibe, emphasised that the findings required not only the enactment of laws prohibiting the practice in the state but also a monitoring team to follow up on every girl child.
‘’You make sure we monitor the girl child from birth to one year, I mean the Health workers when they are coming for immunization to know whether they have done it to the child,’’ the lawmaker suggested.
The Director National Orientation Agency (NOA) in the state, Dr. Desmond Onwe, said the Agency with support from UNICEF had embarked on the sensitization to community leaders in the most affected Local Government Areas to strategise on how to eradicate the practice.
‘’Change is incremental, it does not have to happen like a bang, it’s what people have done over a time, awareness will have to be sustained,’’ he said.
Dr. Onwe noted that the prevalent rate of FGMC was gradually going down in other Local Government Areas of the state where open declaration for its abandonment had been made by community leaders.
