F.G.M.- NOT ENOUGH MONEY TARGETED FOR UK

No-FGM (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At a fringe meeting during the Labour Party Conferencs last night politicians were told that not enough money was being put into the eradication of  FGM (female genital mutilation) in the UK. Fears were raised  as to how much data was being collected and with services being cut that this would put vulnerable children at risk. The meeting which was attended by teachers,doctors, councillors and survivors said that out of £35million put aside only £1million had been allocated to eradicate FGM in Britain which is said to affect up to 170,000 people.                                                                                                                             Ellie Robinson from Newham council in east London, which was recently given £80,000 from the mayor of London to provide an FGM service, said she feared the problem was vastly under reported.

She said "30% of our residents were actually born elsewhere and if you think about what that must mean for FGM you would expect very high numbers, but in actual fact in 2013 we only had five cases that came to our children and social care department and we had just six reported to the police. So at the moment we just don't have the data. We don't know what the problem is and we can't analyse trends,we cant get into the communities because we don't know what we are dealing with, At the moment we are having to make huge cuts, so every intervention that you do, you have to prove there is a need for it and you've got to prove that your intervention would work and i cant prove that the intervention will work because it's not been done in many places" 

In response to the question asked by survivors of FGM to put FGM on the sex education curriculum for both boys and girls Seema Malhotra MP and shadow minister for prevention of violence to women and girls said " we are talking about age appropriate sex education right from key stage 1" but she would not comment on whether she would commit more money in the future to prevent FGM in the UK.   Lucinda Berger the shadow minister for public health said " I'm particularly interested in how we can train and support everyone working in the health services- doctors, nurses, health visitors, midwives, social workers- and how right at the start of education this is something we need to be talking about "                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     According to provisional estimates approximately 130,000 women and girls are living with the consequences of FGM in England and Wales. In addition 60,000 English and Welsh girls were born to mothers who have undergone FGM. Though FGM has been illegal in the UK since 1985, it wasn't until 2014 that the crime was first prosecuted.      

                                         

 

  Related articles

• Britain opens first clinic for FGM victims
• Campaigner celebrates Newham school's efforts to stamp out FGM
• Pair arrested over FGM conspiracy
• Ann John: I was branded a colonialist for fighting against 'barbaric' FGM

FGM. CLASS IN SWEDEN WHERE EVERY GIRL UNDERWENT PROCEDURE EXPOSED.

The harrowing tales of Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting (Photo credit: DFID - UK Department for International Development)

School health services in Norkopping, eastern Sweden found that 60 girls returning to school after holidays to their parents country of origin had been subject to FGM (female genital mutilation). The 28 girls from the same class had been subjected to infibulation, the most extreme form of FGM where the clitoris and labia are completely cut away and the genitals are sewn together leaving just a small opening of the vagina.                                FGM has been punishable by a prison sentence in Sweden since 1982 but was updated to include FGM performed outside the country in 1999.  Considered by communities to be allowed for religious,social and cultural reasons as well as necessary for developement of females into adulthood and marraige FGM comes along with mental illness,  chronic vaginal and pelvic infections, abnormal periods, persistent urine infections, possible kidney failure and infertility according to UK NHS.    "We're working to inform parents that they could face prison if they come back and their children have undergone female genital mutilation,” said Petra Blom Andersson, student health coordinator in Norrköping.                                                                                    FGM is also a problem in the UK, where, it is estimated that over 20,000 girls under the age of 15 are at risk, and that 60,000 women have been operated on.   As in Sweden girls in the UK are most at risk in the summer months when taken abroad and mutilated at the hands of the girls relatives making prosecution of the parents difficult to prove. The law can only prosecute the main perpetrators of FGM.                        UK Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Keir Starmer, unveiled plans to increase convictions under existing legislation,  the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act, which creates an offence of causing or allowing a child or vulnerable adult to die or suffer serious physical harm.                                                                                                           The World Health Organisation predicts that 125 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to FGM in the 29 Africa and Middle Eastern countries where it is most frequently performed                                                                                                                                           Related articles

• Female Genital Mutilation - It Still Exists & Persists
• Advocates Warn That Female Genital Mutation On The Rise In The U.S.
• Sign the petition to protect Australian girls from FGM
• Kenya couple deny murder in FGM case