By Chinwe Onwosi
Nursing mothers and medical workers in Ebonyi state have been advised to stop the practice of Massaging their girl child clitoris with ointment as it also constitutes Female Genital Mutilation.
The advise was laid down by the BOT Chairman of an NGO; Center for Social Value and Early Childhood Development (CESVED), Chief Augustine Abu in a training tagged “FGM/C Non-Medicalization training” supported by Amplify Change, held in Afikpo North Local Government Area Headquarter on Monday 7th and Tuesday 8th September 2020,
Speaking at the training, Chief Abu explained that the Female clitoris contains about 8000 nerve which are useful to the growth of the child. He warned that massaging the clitoris of a newborn girl child with ointment causes harm on the child and so should be stopped.
Chief Abu said that some medical and health workers were not helping matters because of the partial medicalization of female genital mutilation in the state despite the ethics of their profession which is against it.
He urged the health workers to start the counseling of women during their antenatal and postnatal sessions because it is the foundation of where FGM starts.
In her address, the President of CESVED, Mrs. Gift Abu said that the aim of this training was for the health workers to reach out to mothers and key players in the community and to share their ideas on the best approach that can be used to end FGM/C.
Mrs Gift said that her several encounter with survivors of FGM often portray that health workers are used to perform FGM and cutting in some places, hence the move to train them to help curb the practice in Nigeria.
In their remarks, some participants including Mrs Oko Agnes, Nkaa Theresa, Ikeji Rita, Oji Loveth, Ogbu Charity among others said the training has further exposed the negative effects of the harmful practices, hence their resolve to take the message to rural areas and to make it part of their sensitization activities to those who seek medical attention in hospitals in the State.
Highlight of the event was interactive and discussion sessions anchored by CESVED Brand Ambassador, Mr. Victor Oton aka Godpikin, Mr. Tobi Emmanuel and the outstanding Media Woman of CESVED in South East, Miss Nnenna Oshibe of Ebonyi Broadcasting Corporation (EBBC)
