CHILD PROTECTION NETWORK KICKS AGAINST FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION
Segun Showunmi in Ibadan
The Coordinator of Child Protection Network (CPN) in Oyo State, Dr. Ebunlomo Walker has called on parents and guardians to stop female genital mutilation so as to ensure that female children are free from pains and not traumatized, saying that research has shown that female genital mutilation is very dangerous to the health of a female child.
Penpushing reports that Walker made this call on Wednesday, while featuring on a radio program at Impact Business Radio (IBR 92.5fm), in commemoration of this year World Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation, theme: “Unleashing Youth Power”.
The Medical Expert noted that a lot of advocacy is going on for people to know the danger of female genital mutilation, adding that some traditional rulers such as the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi , and the Oni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi have even come out to condemn female genital mutilation.
The Coordinator explained that as a civil society, there is still need for more advocacy to convince people at the grass root noting that women generally don’t speak out when they are mutilated because of the inferiority way they were brought up to keep quiet and this make them to be treated as secondary in the family.
“Nobody is ready to listen to those that were mutilated, we are now encouraging them to speak out, we are exposing them because mutilation is a norm, and norms don’t change in one day except through continuous advocacy.”
Penpushing further reports that, she disclosed that fund as a major challenge for Child Protection Network (CPN) in the advocacy against female genital mutilation in Oyo State, saying that ‘we used our own money for the advocacy that is why we are calling on stakeholders to join hands in getting it out.’
“When a child is mutilated and the case is reported to us, we go ther to evacuate her to the hospital, we are doing all these without support from anybody, we work with lawyers and other legal team so as to assist in prosecution of anybody found wanting.”
The Network boss, however appeal to all the parent, guidance, and care givers to desist from the act, saying that female genital mutilation is unnecessary violence against a girl child and it has no medical or physiological benefit.
Penpushing also reports that the Chairperson of the National Association of Women Journalist (NAWOJ), Oyo State Chapter, Jadesola Ajibola in her remarks noted that as a woman journalist, her association was in collaboration with the State Steering Committee on female genital mutilation.
The first female journalist in the State said the association has also embarked on advocacy in Schools across the State to sensitized the girl child on the need for them to understand the dangers associated with female genital mutilation.
Penpushing reports that, Ajibola while speaking on the dangers of female genital mutilation noted that some of the mutilated girls bleeds to death and the mutilation sometimes affect them during reproduction because there is possibility of cutting off relevant part by the traditionalists who engaged in the cutting.
The Chairperson added that a mutilated girl may find it difficult to give birth on her own during delivery because the baby might find it difficult to come out and the mother will have to passed through Caesarian to delivered.
“Some equipment used in cutting of the clitoris might not be in proper conditions and this can make a girl to contact infections, some of them have tendency not to be interested in having sex with their partners and their partners started complaining and these are some causes of broken homes nowadays
“Mutilating of girls is like suffering and inflicting pains on them, though some communities beliefs that if the clitoris is not cut, when a girl gives birth to a child, the child is likely to die once the baby’s head touches the clitoris.”
