Foundation offers free medical test for commercial sex workers in Onitsha

A Non-Governmental Organization, Save Young Girls Motherhood Foundation, has carried out free medical tests for commercial sex workers in Onitsha, in Anambra State.

Tribune Online gathered that the NGO has been championing a novel campaign since September 2021, to rescue young girls who are in the commercial sex business.

It was gathered also that the girls were tested mainly for hepatitis B and C, the two deadly killer diseases, after HIV and AIDs, as well as tests for malaria, typhoid fever and other Sexually Transmitted Infections, even as patrons who showed willingness were equally tested.

But, getting the girls to run the test was another uphill task, which was different from calling their attention in the first place.

Though the exercise was carried out free of charge, it took more than just the usual persuasion to get them to comply.

The results of the tests would later be sent to their phone numbers, after which those whose tests came back positive would be expected to visit hospitals for immediate treatment.

The founder of Save Young Girls Motherhood Foundation, Reverend Sister Dorathy Okoli, in an interview with Nigerian Tribune, said that ordinarily, the medical tests should not be carried out in the brothels, giving that the girls mostly return to the same vocation, to meet the same disease that had been detected and treated, which she regretted was a disturbing development for the organization.

She maintained that the organization direly needs a rehabilitation home where the repentant girls could be kept to learn vocational training, after which they would be empowered, to help them become financially independent and keep their minds away from the odd job.

Miss Ogechukwu Ihejirika, a medical lab scientist who carried out the tests, praised the foundation for championing volunteerism but observed that it needs external support to achieve its overall target.

Miss Ihejirika also noted that many girls who ventured into the commercial sex business must have been pushed by one societal challenge or the other, and needed such social assistance as is being rendered by the NGO to heal.