SOURCE: GNA
Stakeholders advocating gender equality, equity and a stop to gender-based violence have called on government, civil society organisations and development partners to invest in the complete eradication of Female Genital Mutilation, FGM.
While making the call on Monday at the commemoration of the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM in Accra, a Reproductive and Child Health Advocate of the Ghana Health Service, Cindy Ofori-Appiah, noted that 28 countries in Africa and other parts of the Middle East and Asia still practice FGM calling for greater commitment from stakeholders.
According to the 2021 National Population and Housing Census, the overall FGM prevalence in Ghana is 11.7% and done before a child attains 15 years.
The Reproductive and Child Health Advocate of the Ghana Health Service, Cindy Ofori-Appiah, said the Upper West Region was the most prevalent with 50.5%, while the Central and Eastern Regions had the least with 0.9%.
FGM, according to the United Nations Population Fund UNFPA, refers to all procedures involving partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female organs for cultural or other non-medical reasons.
Madam Ofori-Appiah said the practice was prevalent in Somalia, Mali, and Sierra Leone and common among the Kusasis, Frafras, Kassenas, Nankanas, Busangas, Wallas, Dagaabas, Builsas, and Sisalas.
The commemoration was on the theme: “Accelerating Investment to End Female Genital Mutilation.”
She said cutting off the outer and inner lips of the vulva through the process of FGM in girls and women, meant taking all bodyguards off, easily subjecting victims to infections, which could affect the fallopian tubes and subsequently lead to infertility.
She mentioned severe pain, bleeding, shock, genital tissue swelling, HIV infection after using the same knife for mutilation, impaired wound healing, which made delivery difficult among victims, and psychological consequences as some of the short term health risks among victims.
The long term risks include infractions such as chronic general reproductive tract, and urinary tract infections, difficulty in urination, menstrual blood loss and increased perinatal mortality.
President of the Association of Ghanaian Women and Children’s Welfare, Mrs. Eunice Maasodong, said the labia of the female plays a key role in the free movement of babies during delivery, therefore, when cut, victims often struggle to deliver and sometimes bleed to death.