By Omar Sabally
Gambia Committee on Harmful Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of women and girls, better known as GAMCOTRAP, recently sensitized out of School girls on Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (FGM/Cutting) in the West Coast Region’s settlement of Lamin, Kombo North.
The sensitization is part of a project: ‘Ending the practice of FGM/C through the engagement of Children, Youth, Women and Men in The Gambia’. It’s engaging girls’ clubs and out of school girls in West Coast Region.
Funded by UNICEF, the activity is aimed at enlightening out of school girls on the effects of harmful traditional practices.
Speaking at the gathering, Mr. Haruna Badjie, Regional Social Welfare Officer for West Coast Region, began by defining children’s right, saying the 1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) defines a child as “any human being below the age of eighteen years, unless under the law applicable to the child, majority is attained earlier”.
Badjie catalogued that children’s rights include the right to association with both parents, human identity as well as the basic needs for physical protection, food, universal state-paid education, healthcare, and criminal laws appropriate for the age and development of the child, equal protection of the child’s civil rights, and freedom from discrimination on the basis of the child’s race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, disability, color, ethnicity, or other characteristics.
The Regional Social Welfare Officer reminded that law forbids child labor because it affects the child’s development, education and health.
He stressed that it’s criminal to have sex with an underage person because children cannot consent to sex or marriage. Badjie further pointed out that child marriage is the cause of high maternal mortality rate in Africa. He advised girls to report anyone who has abused or harassed them, to the relevant authorities.
GAMCOTRAP Field Coordinator, Ms.Fatou Bojang, said child marriage and teenage pregnancy should not be entertained.
Madam Bojang also highlighted the negative impacts of FGM, claiming it has serious health complications such as excessive bleeding during birth and reduction of the woman’s sexual desire, among others. She told the girls that FGM is banned in The Gambia and anyone found wanting will be dealt with the full force of the law.
The Field Coordinator also called on the participants to respect their dignity, and “Be role models”.
