25 May 2012
How do we keep our children safe in a multi-cultural society? Ann-Marie Wilson, Founder/Director
In the light of the recent front page article in the Sunday Times on 22nd April that have have led to a couple of arrests for offering FGM services in the UK, how do we keep our children safe from cultural traditional practices that cause harm under human rights legislation, whilst preserving cultural heritage?
28 Too Many was asked to contribute to Barnet’s Safeguarding Children month late last year, and we were delighted to speak to 25 health, social services and charity professionals about FGM, whilst also sharing speaker experiences from FORWARD on FGM in the UK, and Imkaan on Forced Marriage. From this, the Met Police now has our resource sheet as an advice link for teams that may have to deal with FGM in an emergency.
Over the last month I have spent time in Essex, training in police DASH guidelines that enable all practioners and educationlists to use the same profiling in the case of domestic abuse, which includes FGM incidents. Essex now has 28 Too Many as a contact point for professionals dealing with FGM. I was pleased to see two school headmistresses at the training – a sign of a growing awareness of FGM in the UK.
This week we ran a training for Choices Haringey
to help their crisis pregnancy advisors, and other health profesionals, such as local GPs, to understand the cultural historial roots to FGM and what the issues are in the UK.
That’s three local authorites that now have FGM training for staff. If you would like a talk in your local area, do let us know at info@28toomany.org.