A Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) – Save Young Girls Motherhood Foundation – has carried out free medical tests for commercial sex workers in Onitsha, in Anambra State.
The NGO has been championing a novel campaign since September 2021, to rescue young girls who indulge in sex trade.
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.
Some men who patronize them also benefitted from the medical services.
It was not easy convincing the girls to submit to the tests.
Although the exercise was carried out free of charge, it took more than mere persuasion to get them to cooperate.
The results of the tests would later be sent to their respective phones, 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, said ordinarily, the medical tests should not be carried out in the brothels, given that the girls usually return to the same trade, faced with the same disease that had been treated of.