MORE than 1,000 women and girls in Waltham Forest are likely to have experienced female genital mutilation (FGM).

This information emerged as the Metropolitan Police launched Project Azure on Tuesday, offering a £20,000 reward for information that leads to the UK's first ever prosecution for FGM, a dangerous form of child abuse (see page 2).

Sometimes misleadingly called female circumcision, it leaves a woman in physical pain and emotionally scarred for life.

Some girls die from haemorrhage, infection or shock after FGM has been carried out.

One of the speakers at the launch was specialist nurse Jennifer Bourne from the African Well Women's Clinic, based at the Community Health Centre, in Kirkdale Road, Leytonstone, and run by Waltham Forest Primary Care Trust.

The service offers black women advice and support on health issues.

Ms Bourne said: "Many people are affected by FGM in our borough. We need to look at the funding going into services to tackle it.

"The mental health implications should not be under-estimated and many women who come to our service have long term complications such urinary problems, menstrual problems and trouble having children.

"I am really excited the police have got this together today. The profile has been raised."

In some African countries more than 90 per cent of the female population have suffered.

Ms Bourne said:"The last census showed that there were more than 1,000 young girls in the borough of black African origin from Nigeria, Ghana, Somalia and Kenya. These countries practise FGM.

"Young women have come to us in the past and also said that FGM is happening in Waltham Forest, but because it is hidden it is difficult to know whether this is still the case."

Ms Bourne said she has been aware of victims of FGM as young as seven days old.

She said that many young girls do not realise what is going to happen to them and are merely aware that they are going for a "special celebration."

But she said: "Through the work we do there has been a change within the communities, there is beginning to be a shift in thinking.

"Many women saying they won't have it done to their daughters. It is changing, but it is still going on."

Leyla Hussein, a youth outreach worker at the African Well Women's Clinical Centre, said: "Some young people actually ask their parents to have FGM done, but they didn't know what it is.

"They fear they will be isolated and considered dirty and nobody will marry them if they don't have it done."

l For information about the African Well Women's Clinic call 8928 2244.

POLICE are offering a £20,000 reward for information that leads to the UK's first ever prosecution for female genital mutilation (FGM).

On Tuesday the Met announced a new clampdown called Project Azure, which aims to combat FGM perpetrators operating in the UK and people who take their victims abroad.

FGM is believed to affect about 60,000 women and girls in the UK, and is prevalent in boroughs with higher proportions of African immigrants, such as Waltham Forest.

The launch featured four speakers, including Waltham Forest Primary Care Trust's FGM specialist nurse Jennifer Bourne.

The head of the Met's child abuse investigation team, Det Chief Supt Alistair Jeffrey, said the project was being set up now to co-incide with the start of the summer, a time when some young girls and children are taken abroad for FGM.

Det Chief Supt Jeffrey said: "It is child abuse, pure and simply, it is happening in London and we want to stop this.

"We want to get this message across now and prevent children being subjected to these attacks.

"This is not an attack on somebody's culture, it is an attack on those that abuse children."

It is illegal in the UK to carry out FGM, or to send children abroad to have the procedure carried out and is punishable by up to 14 years in prison.

* People with information about FGM should call police on 7230 8392 or Crimestoppers anonymously 0800 555 111.

FEMALE Genital Mutilation (FGM), also known as circumcision, involves girls of all ages, including children, having their genitalia removed.

The procedures are usually carried for cultural or religious reasons and can range from injury to the clitoris to complete removal of the labia and clitoris, which is then sewn up leaving only a tiny opening.

Parents usually send their children abroad for FGM and it is often carried out in unsanitary conditions, without an anaesthetic and using instruments such as tin lids or razors.

The practice is widespread in 28 African countries and a handful of Middle Eastern nations and there is evidence that it is happening in London.

FGM often leads to long term medical problems, including urinary and menstrual problems, severe infection and infertility.

It can have long term mental health implications, including flashbacks. Met child abuse investigator Det Insp Carol Hamilton said: "We cannot stand by still while our girls are being taken to foreign countries and mutilated in this way.

"It is totally unnecessary. There is nothing in the Bible or the Koran that mentions FGM.

"We all accept and embrace cultures and customs in different communities, but cultural acceptance does not include accepting the unacceptable."