A London clinic for women who have undergone female genital mutilation is being forced to close after the local council withdrew funding from March 2017.
The Acton African Well Woman Centre was awarded the Guardian sponsored Diversity and equality award in 2011 and houses experts in the field of FGM who are able to help women who have been through the trauma of the procedure.
It also offers women deinfibulation – a reversal of of the most extreme form of FGM. Type III is the removal of the entire genitalia, leaving a hole small enough for urine and menstrual blood to pass through.
“Ealing council’s priority is to raise awareness of FGM and the support available to a wider audience,” a spokesman told the Guardian.
“We will continue to commission FGM awareness work in the borough to reach more people such as schools and community groups and signpost women to clinical support.”
The clinic was notified of the council’s decision late last year, but the closure was confirmed following the rejection of a last-ditch appeal to Ealing clinical commissioning group for alternative funding.
A source told the Guardian closing the clinic would destroy a strong community of women who bring “sisters, cousins and friends” to the service.
“I don’t think anyone is questioning the value and expertise of the service,” a worker said, but I wonder if it was white middle-class women who were vocal and out there would they close down the service?
“These are vulnerable women and they don’t have many places to go. It’s devastating that this clinic can’t survive after 10 years demonstrating that it is a gold standard.”
Since opening in 2007, the Acton clinic has seen more than 1,000 women in its fortnightly open hours and staff have performed upwards of 500 deinfibulations.
A number of healthcare professionals have been trained by the clinic, including GPs at a community-based service in Bristol, which is modelled on the Acton service.
The clinic does not refuse women from outside Ealing borough, which means any woman from across the UK can walk in. Women have come from as far as Northern Ireland seeking help.
Leyla Hussein, a psychotherapist, survivor and campaigner, has referred women to the clinic. “What commissioners need to understand is that there’s a taboo,” she said. “[Women] aren’t going to go to the clinic in their area and we shouldn’t put barriers around them when they need to have access. I’m shocked and disappointed that the commissioners didn’t take that into account.
“A majority of women are cut by women. The idea of these women trusting other women is a big deal. That they trust them is brave of these women to do that. Now that they have become confident and trusting, it’s going to be taken away from them.”
A petition to save the service has gathered more than 14,000 signatures.
