The Better Health for Rural Women, Children, and Internally Displaced Persons Foundation in Ebonyi has called for equal rights and privileges while advocating an end to the unnecessary stigmatization of uncircumcised female teenagers in rural communities.
Dr. Nkechi Echiegu, the team leader, expressed disapproval of the stigmatization faced by uncircumcised girls from their peers and some illiterate parents in rural areas. She highlighted that such stigmatization has compelled some to resort to genital mutilation.
Echiegu urged parents to fulfill their responsibilities by safeguarding and supporting their children, encouraging them to resist negative family and societal pressures.
The foundation’s team leader committed to ongoing sensitization efforts to raise awareness, citing numerous reports of female genital mutilation persisting in rural communities in the state.
“As of September 2023, we got a report that some girls in Ezza Inyimegu in Izzi local government area of the state went to a traditional birth attendant and demanded to be circumcised.
“Actually, it was even a man that circumcised them. When we heard about it, we tried to know why such occurred.
“It is an international discourse because the UNFPA decided to partner with our foundation to follow up and find out if it was true.
”Lo and behold, at Community Secondary School Ezza Inyimegu, one of the girls opened up that their mothers stigmatised them and called them (Akpapi), meaning, uncircumcised girls.”
