Ghana has announced plans to renew its fight against Female Genital Mutilation, FGM by reviewing current strategies and rolling out effective measures.
Campaigners against the practice have been meeting in Ghana’s capital Accra hoping to galvanize commitment from stakeholders in the West African nation to tackle the menace.
Ghana’s first lady, Rebecca Akufo-Addo on Wednesday appealed to all stakeholders to as a matter of urgency “take a unified decision, which will bind us to take strong measures to eradicate this practice”
She described the practice as “terribly harmful” and “detrimental to the health, human rights and development of our girls, that no argument should trump the considerations of the rights and health of any girl”.
Rebecca Akufo-Addo further said “although a variety of strategies have been implemented to, much still remains to be done due the deeply held attitudes regarding FGM in some of our societies.”
She is hoping to get the needed support to end the practice in rural Ghana with intensified education and sensitization in parts of the country.
FGM is a major challenge in many African countries and campaigners against the practice have struggled to get communities to end it.
In Kenya young girls this year invented an App to stop the practice. The ‘I-cut’ connects girls at risk of FGM with rescue centres and gives legal and medical help to those who have been cut.
Its simple interface has five buttons – help, rescue, report, information on FGM, donate and feedback – offering users different services.
Source: Africafeeds.com
