WHO WE ARE

Who We Are

Rosalind Jerram

Dahlia Project Manager

Ros has spent the last 20 years working with refugee and migrant women both in the UK and overseas for the British Red Cross and UNHCR, before joining Manor Gardens Welfare Trust in 2007. She set up the FGM Programme at Manor Gardens eight years ago after realising that many of the women she saw were struggling with gynaecological and urinary symptoms as a result of their FGM. However they were too scared to disclose to health professionals about what had happened to them. The FGM Programme was set up to support these women and their families.

Leyla Hussein

Dahlia Project Development Lead

Leyla Hussein, OBE is a psychotherapist, disrupter and international lecturer on FGM and gender rights. She is recognised globally and her work has been presented at Oxford, Cambridge, many Ivy League faculties in the US, and many other universities worldwide. She is an Advisor on FGM to the UK Department of Health, the Home Office FGM Working Group and the NHS Clinical Advisory Group on FGM. She regularly writes, speaks and provides consultancy support on women’s rights and health with regular articles published in The Guardian, Cosmopolitan and The Huffington Post as well as blogs in Newsweek, Mumsnet, Stylist magazine and the Department of International Development website.

Brianna Toms

Lead Project Worker

Brianna completed her Bachelor of Social Work (Honours) in Australia in 2017 with a minor in mental health. Her practice framework is grounded in social justice, human rights, empowerment, and trauma-informed, feminist and anti-oppressive approaches. Brianna completed her final placement in a maternity hospital with women from refugee backgrounds surrounding issues such as immigration, domestic violence, housing and FGM. She also currently co-chairs The Healthcare Circle, part of The Circle NGO, which seeks to support existing grassroots projects and organisations that empower women and girls globally.

Njomeza Kartallozi

Dahlia Psychotherapist

Njomeza is a trained and registered psychotherapist, with an interest is cross-cultural therapy. While working as Community Development Therapist at Women’s Therapy Centre she established a community therapeutic model to make therapy accessible to a wide range of cultures and groups. She has been working as the Dahlia group psychotherapist since the start of the project and has helped to develop and shape the service through her cross cultural expertise. She also runs The Chorus Counselling Project at Manor Gardens Welfare Trust. She is a member of BACP.

Fatuma Farah

Dahlia Psychotherapist

Fatuma is a trained and UKCP registered psychotherapist and a member of BACP clinical supervisor. She worked for the NHS in the UK and the United Nations Development Programme in Somalia. Fatuma also worked for Nafsiyat Intercultural Therapy Centre and WPF Therapy as a senior clinician. She is doing her PhD research on FGM at the University of East London.

Sally Griffin

Clinical Supervisor

Sally has been the organisational consultant and clinical supervisor for the Dahlia Project since its inception. She is a Fellow of the BPF (British Psychotherapy Foundation), a Full Member of the Group Analytic Society International and a Member of International Association for Group Psychotherapy and Group Processes.

Background to Dahlia Project

The FGM Programme at Manor Gardens Welfare Trust was set up 9 years ago to support women who had survived FGM, to empower communities through education to reject FGM and to train and raise awareness with professionals about FGM and safeguarding. Leyla Hussein, psychotherapist and campaigner who was already working on our programme spoke of the essential need to ensure that survivors of FGM had access to psychological support as well as physical support. From this, the Dahlia Project grew to what it has become today – a unique specialist holistic service providing both psychological and physical support to survivors of FGM.

“I was cut when I was 7 years old. It was not until later, when I gave birth to my daughter, that anyone talked to me about FGM and offered me help. FGM is shrouded in secrecy and too many women suffer in silence through many years of pain. At Dahlia Project we break the silence and provide a safe space and therapeutic support. Working with these incredible women who have gone through so much, seeing them heal and support each other, is inspiring.”

Leyla Hussein, Founder of Dahlia Project

Introduction to MGWT

The Dahlia Project is run by Manor Gardens Welfare Trust. Manor Gardens Welfare Trust is a health and wellbeing charity based in North London. Founded in 1913 we work with and for the most vulnerable people in our communities, providing tailored services around physical and mental wellbeing and promoting community cohesion. Read more >