Precious Oham, Adebayo Adenrele
A civil society organisation, Hacey Health Initiative, has tasked media organisations and the public in Ekiti State to intensify efforts against Female Genital Mutilation.
The group, which sought the engagement of media personnel in the fight against the practice, pointed out the need for collaborative efforts in tackling the menace.
At a media dialogue with journalists in Ado-Ekiti, the State Coordinator of the group, Oluwanifemi Helen Ayeni, said “the media has a vital role to play if we must win this war and eradicate the practice.”
She noted that media are vast tools that can be used to spread awareness and bring about positive behavioural change through sharing the appropriate contents with the public.
“We organised the media dialogue, bringing together media personnel to feed us on how we could partner better and through the interaction, we got how we can leverage on press release and to focus attention on organisations that have Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) with structures in place that are already carrying out activities.”
The Desk Officer, Female Genital Mutilation, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development, Tolulope Ayotunde Ogunniyi, also called on the generality of the people to take it as a point of responsibility that in their households, no girl or woman is cut.