The World is seeing increasing commitment from communities and governments to eliminate Female genital mutilation (FGM) which violates the human rights and undermines the health and well-being of some 3 million girls each year
In a statement from UNICEF, more than 130 million girls and women in the 29 countries in Africa and the Middle East where the practice is concentrated today have undergone some form of FGM and that the impact on their lives is enormous.
Today marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.
However, UNICEF and its partners have extended a call on all health workers to mobilize against this dangerous, deeply harmful practice.
The support of health workers, they indicated, in the global effort to end FGM is critical as front-line health workers have inside knowledge of the social dynamics in the communities they serve and the social norms that perpetuate FGM,and they can speed up the rapidly declining support for the practice.
“Their patients know and trust them,” the statement said.
Health workers also have a deep understanding of the harmful consequences of this practice. They see the urinary, menstrual, and obstetric complications ? including haemorrhage, infection and death ? caused by it. And, they also witness the emotional wounds FGM inflicts, trauma which often lasts a lifetime.
In the statement, it was also indicated that health workers are also uniquely well-positioned to lead the effort to resist a disturbing trend that has emerged in many countries: The medicalization of FGM since one in five girls have been cut by a trained health-care provider.
FGM is illegal in many countries, and medical providers who perform it in these places are breaking the law. But in every country, whether legal or not, medical providers who perform FGM are violating the fundamental rights of girls and women. They are also lending tacit approval to this wrongful practice and defying the most basic precept of medicine: Do no harm.
Health professionals ? especially front-line health workers? may often be under considerable pressure to engage in FGM. But with support to resist this pressure, they can become part of the solution.
“We know that health workers cannot do this alone. Our organizations, UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, and UNICEF,through our Joint Programme on FGM; the international Confederation of Midwives; and the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics,are committed to supporting efforts to provide health workers with the skills and information they need to accelerate the abandonment of FGM ? and to treat the complications that arise from the practice.’
Source: spyGhana.com
