BOBO=DIOULASSO, 6 May 2009 (IRIN) - Construction has begun of West
Africa's first clinic for reconstructing clitorises for victims of female
genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C). Amid high demand, the US non-profit
Clitoraid is funding the clinic, dubbed "Pleasure Hospital", in
Bobo-Dioulasso, western Burkina Faso.
Financed through the non-profit's "Adopt a clitoris" campaign that
sponsors women wishing to have clitoral reconstruction, Clitoraid raised
more than US$50,000 to build the facility. Construction began in March and
is expected to be completed by September.
Once opened, US-based gynaecological surgeons will offer free clitoral
reconstruction surgeries to FGM/C victims from across West Africa. Currently
too few surgeons are available to serve the number of women who want to
reconstruct their mutilated clitorises and the price in private clinics
remains unaffordable for most, according to the few surgeons trained on the
procedure in Burkina Faso where the surgery was pioneered in 2006.
"Clitoraid decided to build the clinic in Bobo-Dioulasso because it is at
the crossroads of several West African countries," said Mariam Banemanie,
president of Clitoraid's local NGO partner, Voices of Women.
Cross-border FGM/C has been on the rise in West Africa in recent years,
with cutters and girls evading one country's laws by participating in FGM/C
in a neighbouring country.
Three million girls are at risk of FGM/C every year in Africa, according
to World Health Organization (WHO), which defines FGM/C as any injury to
female genital organs for non-medical reasons.
"The clinic will restore justice and give women the ability to feel
sexual pleasure," Banemanie told IRIN. "Burkinabé women are beginning to
stand up for what they believe in - why should sexual pleasure not be a part
of that?"
There has been such high demand for the reconstruction surgery that
Clitoraid has placed a cap on the waiting list at 100, she said. Voices of
Women receives daily calls from women - and sometimes husbands - expressing
interest in the procedure, she added.
Prospective patients receive counselling from the NGO's psychologist
who - on request - puts them in touch with women who have had clitoral
reconstruction surgery in private clinics.
Abi Sanon, 36, said she was "lucky" to undergo clitoral reconstruction at
a hospital in Ouagadougou in 2006. "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," said Sanon, who told IRIN she had her
clitoris cut as a young girl.
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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