Founder-President of The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, Toyin Saraki has revealed that about 20 million Nigerian women have experienced Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
 
Mrs Saraki made the disclosure in commemoration of the United Nation’s International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation on February 6.
 
She also expressed the belief that it is through midwives and maternal care that FGM can be overturned in Nigeria.
 
“As the founder and CEO of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, a maternal health charity based in Nigeria, I have seen with my own eyes the harm caused by this archaic practice,” Mrs Saraki wrote in an article published on Huffington Post.
 
“Women who have undergone the procedure commonly experience complications during birth, and are at a greater risk of caesarian section, hemorrhage, obstetric lacerations and prolonged labour.
 
“In low and middle income economic regions with poor coverage of quality maternal healthcare such as Nigeria, the heightened risk that FGM imposes on expectant mothers presents an added danger to childbirth.
 
“Last year I participated in a United National Population Fund conference in Nigeria that called for collective action to eliminate Female Genital Mutilation by 2030. FGM is a dangerous, harmful and unnecessary cultural practice, a physical assault that causes grievous bodily harm - it is therefore the responsibility of the international community, domestic governments and civil society to work together in fighting to protect girls of the future from such inhumane practice.
 
“The UN estimates that if current trends continue, 15 million more girls between 15 and 19 will be cut within the next 14 years. It is our job as international citizens to prevent this from happening.
 
Read more at http://pulse.ng/health/toyin-saraki-20-million-nigerian-women-have-been-...