A non governmental organisation (NGO), Save Young Girls Motherhood Foundation, has carried out free medical tests for commercial sex workers and their customers in Onitsha, in Anambra State.
The NGO said it has been at the forefront of a campaign to rescue the young girls, who are into commercial sex business, since 2021.
The commercial sex workers were, on Wednesday, tested mainly for hepatitis B and C, the two deadly killer diseases, after HIV and AIDs, and other sexually transmitted infections.
The customers and patrons who showed willingness were equally tested.
The founder of the Foundation, Rev. Sister Dorathy Okoli, while speaking to our correspondent, said, although the exercise was carried out free of charge, it took more than just the usual persuasion to get them to comply.
Okoli said the increasing rate of young girls taking to prostitution is disturbing, while pointing out the urgent need for the test, so as to reduce the spread of disease.
She said the results would be sent to the phone numbers, after which those whose tests came back positive would proceed to the hospitals for immediate treatment.
She said, “Getting the girls to run the test was another uphill task. 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.
“We are in dire need of 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 this odd job.
“These girls who ventured into 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.”