Excerpt:
A victim of female genital mutilation (FGM) is appealing to girls who feel they might be at risk themselves to come forward for help.
Social worker Hawa Sesay runs a youth group reaching out to girls in Hackney, teaching them to say no to FGM, despite it being standard practice in many African communities.
In Sierra Leone where Mrs Sesay comes from, around 94 per cent of women have undergone FGM – which involves the partial or total removal of external female genital organs, which are cut off frequently without anesthetic.