and awareness will lead to a worldwide commitment to end this tragic act. Part III: Feature Story: Hannah KoromaAs graphic as the nature of the subject has been, its hard to imagine the difficulty it takes for a victim to speak. In addition, their bravery and honesty in reference to their experience is immeasurable as well. Much admiration and respect should be given to the women that speak for the sake of awareness. This particular story I find interesting because it is so detailed. This poor women tells her story and the pictures I get in my head bring chills to my spine. Her name is Hannah Koroma. She is from Sierra Leone, a country on the western coast of Africa, and her experience is saddening. She talks of being mutilated at the age of ten. Hannah was told by her late grandmother that she was being taken down to the river to perform a certain ceremony, and that afterwards, she would be given a lot of food to eat. She was led like a sheep to a slaughter house.She was taken to a dark room, undressed, blindfolded, and stripped naked. Once again, she is only ten years old. Two strong older women carried her to the site. She was forced to lie flat while four big women applied pressure on her to not move. One was on her chest, one on her arms, and one woman on each leg. A piece of cloth was forced in her mouth to stop the screaming. She was then shaved, and “operated” on. Hannah speaks of putting up a big fight when the operation began. The pain was terrible and unbearable. She was cut with a blunt penknife by women half drunk with alcohol. They danced, yelled, and stripped while this was happening. She could not urinate unless she stood and would urinate on her wound continuously, infecting it time after time. She was given neither anesthetics nor antibiotics to fight infection. All that was put on her was that cream base to facilitate the healing that lasted months. She became anemic and suffered fo...
