The HACEY Health Initiative has expanded its campaign against female genital mutilation, or MGM, to local communities in the state of Ekiti in response to what is being characterised as an increase in the practice.
The STOP CUT project, run by the HACEY health programme, was in Igbemo Ekiti in the Irepoodun/Ifelodun government to educate survivors and some community leaders on the dangers of FGM.
The organisation is working with important stakeholders including the state ministry of health, traditional authorities, religious and community leaders, as well as FGM survivors, to develop a plan to stop the practice in Ekiti by 2030.
The Executive Director of Hacey, Rhoda Robinson, explained that the workshop became necessary in order to engage the people at the grassroots level on the dangers in the practice of FGM in society in an effort to stop the menace while speaking in Igbemo-Ekiti during the event organised in collaboration with the United Nations, and UN Trust Fund.
Robinson, who was speaking on behalf of the organization's state coordinator Oluwanifemi Ayeni, said that most occurrences of female genital mutilation took place in rural regions and that community leader and survivors must spearhead the anti-mutilation movement.
The executive director expressed regret over the pervasiveness of the crime in the state but insisted that the organisation would continue with its series of interventions by working with and forming alliances with particular people and community leaders who would then act as focal points at the grassroots.
According to her, ” The essence of what we are doing here is to sensitize our people in the community especially the survivors on the dangers of FGM and how to stop it in our society.
” You know if survivors who were victims of this act come out to campaign against it in the grassroots, it will go in no small measure towards ending the menace in no distant future.
” Our aim is to use these people including those we called the FGM alliance team to advocate against it and we are hoping to achieve desired results soon through them in this community.”
She pointed out that there is a need for the state government to be decisive in its implementation of the existing laws against FGM, adding that the group would remain resolute in its drive towards ending the practice in the state.
An official of the National Orientation Agency (NOA) Mrs Toyosi Eleyinmi and that of the state ministry of women affairs, Tolu Ogunniyi explained that the negative effects of FGM practice on women and girls are enormous, calling for a stop to it in the interest of the society.
Eleyinmi described the practice as a manifestation of gender inequality, abuse of human rights and a violation of women and girls, which she said could create instability in the system if not stopped.
On his part, Ogunniyi revealed that Ekiti State had enacted anti-FGM law in 2011, which was amended in 2019, saying that the statute stipulates a fine of N200,000 or one-year imprisonment for offenders including enablers.