Female genital mutilation helpline launched

I Stand Against Female Genital Mutilation

As a 16-year-old girl living in Rochdale fights to stop her forcable return to her native Nigeria, where she says she will be forced to undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), the NSPCC has revealed some 1,700 women and girls in the UK in the past two years were treated by specialist FGM clinics, including a girl as young as seven, and this masks a bigger problem says the NSPCC.

A UK-wide helpline to protect girls at risk of ritual cutting, practised by some African, Middle Eastern and Asian communities, goes live on Monday.

The victims "are hidden behind a wall of silence", said Lisa Harker of NSPCC.

The helpline is run by NSPCC child protection experts who have had training and advice from experts who work with women and girls who have undergone this form of ritual mutilation.

Olayinka Olatunde and her family, who now live in Falinge in Rochdale, were forced to flee Nigeria three years ago following attempts to make her undergo Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), part of the cultural tradition within her father's family and tribe.

Her mother, Abiola's, eldest child died in Nigeria 21 years ago after being forced to undergo FGM when she was eight years old. Abiola was terrified that the same thing would happen to her younger daughter. In 2009, attempts were made to force the procedure on Olayinka by her father's family, but she resisted them.

Abiola was advised by police to move with her children to a different part of Nigeria. She did this but Olayinka's father's family tracked them down and they left the country to seek asylum in the UK - her asylum application has been refused.

Since 2010, when her father died, Olayinka has been at even higher risk of being forced to undergo FGM in Nigeria. She and her mother are being blamed for his death as it is a cultural belief that, without the FGM, bad things will continue to happen to their family.

Female genital mutilation, sometimes known as female circumcision has been illegal in the UK since 1985 - but still continues in secret, often carried out without anaesthetic.

Sometimes girls are sent abroad to have it done. Sometimes it is done in the UK.

It involves the partial or total removal of the female genital organs. The NSPCC says that victims are usually aged between four and 10 but some are younger.

Some 20,000 girls in England and Wales are thought to be at risk, according to government estimates, but there is a lack of accurate figures.

The NSPCC says the free 24-hour helpline is aimed at anyone concerned that a child's welfare is at risk because of female genital mutilation, particularly teachers and medical staff, but they are also hoping that relatives will come forward.

They stress that callers can remain anonymous but information on children at risk will be passed to police and social services.

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