By Anthony Adongo Apubeo
Widana (U/E), Jan 12, GNA – Mr James Twene, Acting Upper East Regional Director of the Department of Gender has urged community members and school children in the Widana community in the Pusiga District to join the fight against the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
According to him, FGM is an outmoded cultural practice, dehumanising and posed significant sexual and reproductive health implications on victims and society underscored the need to end the practice to enhance inclusive and accelerated development.
The Acting Regional Director made this call when the Department in collaboration with the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council engaged community members and students as part of activities to mark 2024 edition of 16 days of activism against Gender Based Violence (GBV) and the elimination of all forms of abuses against women and girls.
It was organised on the theme “unifying voices against FGM: a stakeholder dialogue,” by the Upper East Regional Coordinating Council and the Department of Gender with funding support from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).
FGM is a practice that involves, partial or total removal of the external female genitalia or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
According to the UNFPA, it is estimated that 230 million girls and women globally had undergone FGM while 68 million girls are at risk of suffering the practice between 2015 and 2030, if the current levels of practice continued.
Speaking to the community members and school children, Mr Twene said FGM was a deeply rooted traditional practice and remained a significant challenge in the district and its consequences were dire.
He said the practice was not only a human right abuse but also a gender-based violence and gender discrimination against women and girls which practice needed to be curbed.
According to the 2023 Baseline survey report on FGM Prevalence in Northern Ghana launched by UNFPA Ghana, nine out of 1,000 females had undergone FGM in the Pusiga District while 20 out of 1,000 females had undergone the practice in the Sawla-Kalba-Tuna District in the Savannah Region.
Similarly, the report regretted that 30 out of 1,000 females had suffered FGM practice in the Kassena-Nankana West District, while at the Wa East District in the Upper West Region, about 10 out of 1,000 females had undergone the practice.
The report also revealed that cross border activities were found to be major drivers of the practice in the border districts, particularly those sharing borders with Burkina Faso where the practice was still prevalent.
This, Mr Twene indicated, was worrisome and posed obstacles to achievement of gender parity and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and called for concerted efforts to eliminate the canker.
“To stop the spread of this harmful practice from the borders of Burkina Faso to all parts of the regions in Ghana, there is a need to intensify sensitisation and engagement sessions with community members on health implications of FGM in tandem within engagement of young people, parents or guardians, and traditional leaders,” he added.
More than 300 community members and students and teachers were sensitised and the participants pledged their commitments to join the campaign to eliminate the practice.
GNA