Around the world the numbers of women and girls forced from their homelands fleeing violence and crushing poverty has grown into an overwhelming, worldwide humanitarian crisis. Women and girls now represent over half of all refugees in our world. Their numbers are staggering, and steadily rising .   

Journeys are arduous and treacherous. They are long and come at unimaginable costs. Women are the main economic providers for their families. Human trafficking, sexual exploitation and abuse, forced labour and abduction cause unimaginable harm. Many mothers are fleeing to prevent their daughters from suffering the same violent, primitive acts of genital cutting and mutilation that they themselves are victims of. They often flee without their partner, with children in hand. 

So many arrive in desperate need of urgent women’s healthcare. There are others who have been in Canada for years. Yet shame, guilt, lack of healthcare access to Canada’s systems have left many to struggle with their symptoms without care. 

That’s why in 2006 four women family medicine residents founded the SWAN Clinic at the Canadian Centre for Refugee and Immigrant Health Care. Today, woman and their daughters account for 70% of those coming to our clinic needing care. And it’s why an all women team of nurse practitioners, doctors, nurses, mental health counsellors and other allied providers give comprehensive women’s care without questions, fee or judgement. 

We make sure they receive these vital women’s services, provided in a safe, protected, confidential medical home for women’s health exams, pap smears, breast exams, contraception and family planning, mental health care, sexually transmitted disease care (including HIV) and prevention, cancer screening, food and nutritional support, exams for female genital cutting and more.