Clitoris hospital for Burkina Faso

  1. Posted on Monday 11 May 2009 - 15:50
    Murtala
    Image of Murtala
    Murtala Mohamed Kamara, AfricaNews reporter in Freetown, Sierra Leone
    Females with mutilated clitoris can now breathe a sigh of relief following the construction of a hospital in Burkina Faso that would specialize in the reconstruction of the sex organ. The US non-profit organization Clitoraid is funding the $50,000 project which is dubbed "Pleasure Hospital."
    Burkina Faso map
    The ‘Pleasure Hospital’ situated at Bobo- Dioulasso in the western part of Burkina Faso will help women especially victims of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) wishing to have their clitoris restored after going through such ordeal.

    ‘Pleasure Hospital’ will offer free clitoral reconstruction surgeries to victims of FGM all throughout the West Africa region, according to the humanitarian news agency IRIN.

    Mariam Banemanie, President of Clitoraid's local NGO partner, Voices of Women said "Clitoraid decided to build the clinic in Bobo-Dioulasso because it is at the crossroads of several West African countries." "The clinic will restore justice and give women the ability to feel sexual pleasure." Banemanie said whiles questioned "Burkinabé women are beginning to stand up for what they believe in - why should sexual pleasure not be a part of that?"

    Some female journalists were striped naked in Sierra Leone early this year for mere reporting on FGM. The World Health Organization (WHO) which defines FGM as ‘any injury to female genital organs for non-medical reasons’ said over three million girls are at risk of it.

    Abi Sanon, 36, who went through the reconstruction of the organ at a private clinic in Ouagadougou in 2006 after it was cut at a tender age said "I wanted to find my integrity and to know real pleasure. The procedure cost $320; my boyfriend contributed. It has really changed our lives. Before, I did not really know what pleasure felt like, and now it is not my boyfriend who calls the shots in our relationship - it is much more equal," she said.

    Sanon told IRIN she was surprised at her family’s positive reaction when she informed them she had wanted the surgery, since she said talking about sexual pleasure is still seen as taboo in her country.

    Her 70-year-old mother has expressed interest in having the procedure once the hospital opens.

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