A non-governmental organisation, Hacey Initiative, has presented award to five winners of an essay competition aimed at eradicating the practice of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and cutting, especially in the Southwest.
The effort, according to the organisers, is to test the level of information, knowledge and aware of the impact of the practice of FGM and the imperative of bringing it to a halt.
The award ceremony, which held at the Conference Room of the Oyo State Ministry of Education, saw five students from five different secondary schools in Oyo State emerging winners as a result of their outstanding performance in the Hacey Essay competition.
Speaking, the representative of the organisation, Mr Bamidele Oyewunmi, said the essay competition was in commemoration of the International Day for Zero Tolerance for Female Genital Mutilation.
He noted that over one thousand entries were received from Oyo, Osun and Ekiti states and that after the entries were screened, the best five were picked. Incidentally all the five winners including the overall best came from Oyo State.
He said “Hacey Initiative is a developmental organisation focused on improving the health and productivity of women and girls in our communities. One of our priorities and major intervention is this “Stop Cut” project, to ensure that every woman in Southwest Nigeria is free from Female Genital Mutilation.
“Research has said that over 2million women are at risk of being mutilated every day. Now older generations have the idea because it seems to be a traditional practice and we understand that older generations have this idea and we want to educate and orientate the coming generation; that is why we have included boys and girls in our intervention.”
He said over 1000 entries were received, after which interview were conducted for the shortlisted ones to verify their authenticity.
While speaking on the aim of the essay competition, Mr Bamidele said, “Young people are now more informed about ways to end female genital mutilation. They have more knowledge about laws and policies….”
In his remarks, Oyo State Commissioner for Education, Mr Abdulrahman Abdulraheem, said he was not surprised at the emergence of Oyo students as winners, adding that Oyo state is a pacesetter.
“When you talk of Oyo State, you talk of pacesetting achievements and today I’m happy we are recording yet another milestone in our journey towards being the best not only in Nigeria but in Africa generally….,” he said.
In her address, the overall best student, Miss Awolowo Elizabeth from God’s Blessing Private School said she wants her voice to be heard across Nigeria that female genital mutilation is evil.
The students were all presented with gifts while the overall best was presented with a cash gift of N50,000 and a brand new HP laptop.