The Sunday Mail
Online Reporter
TRADITIONAL and faith healers are urging Zimbabweans to desist from shunning people with intersex characteristics.
An intersex person is born with a condition called ambiguous genitalia, a rare condition in which external genitals do not appear to be clearly either male or female.
Sometimes referred to as hermaphrodites, a term which is regarded as derogatory in some circles, people with ambiguous genitalia face a number of challenges, chief among them discrimination.
On October 26, Zimbabwe will join the rest of the world in observing the Intersex Awareness Day.
This is an internationally observed awareness day, which is designed to highlight human rights issues faced by intersex people.
As the day draws closer, traditional and faith healers, who are often consulted by people with intersex characteristics, are calling upon communities to embrace intersex people and desist from infringing on their human rights.
Bishop Cuthbert Nyaruvenda, president of the Zimbabwe National Practitioners Association (ZNPA) – a body which represents the interests of traditional healers, midwives, faith healers and herbalists – said it is high time communities embrace intersex people.
“There is a strong belief that those with intersex conditions might have been bewitched. This is a traditional belief. As ZNPA, we urge parents of children that are born with such conditions to go to their nearest hospitals. Such conditions can be operated on,” Bishop Nyaruvenda said.
Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo is currently engaged in an intersex awareness campaign.
