Reviewed 20 August 2026 for impact wording and PSHE Association status.
By Aneeta Prem MBE
I wrote But It’s Not Fair and Cut Flowers to help children understand forced marriage and female genital mutilation through stories that can be used safely in education and safeguarding settings.
Freedom Charity records that it has donated more than 100,000 copies of the books to children, schools, professionals, libraries and community settings across the United Kingdom.
That is a charity distribution figure. It should be described for what it is: evidence of reach, not evidence by itself of educational or safeguarding outcomes.
Why the books were written
Children may not recognise coercion or know the terms forced marriage and FGM. They may believe family pressure cannot be challenged or may not know that specialist help exists.
Stories can create a safer route into difficult conversations because pupils can discuss what is happening to a character without being asked to disclose anything about their own lives.
That is why both books were designed to sit within wider safeguarding education rather than operate as stand-alone instructions to children.
But It’s Not Fair
But It’s Not Fair explores forced marriage, choice, pressure and help-seeking through fiction.
Freedom Charity developed accompanying lesson resources for Key Stages 3 and 4. The PSHE Association awarded its Quality Mark to those educational resources.
The Quality Mark applies to the lesson resources, not to the novel itself.
Cut Flowers
Cut Flowers helps young people explore female genital mutilation, bodily autonomy, safeguarding and the responsibility of adults to protect children.
Freedom Charity also developed accompanying FGM lesson resources for Key Stages 3 and 4, which received the PSHE Association Quality Mark.
Again, the distinction matters: the novel is the story; the Quality Mark relates to the educational resources created to support teaching.
What the 100,000 figure means
Freedom Charity’s recorded distribution total is now above 100,000 books.
The figure reflects books placed into schools, professional settings, libraries, community organisations and directly with children and young people.
It demonstrates scale of distribution. It does not tell us by itself how many pupils read every page, how many lessons were delivered or how many safeguarding interventions resulted.
Where impact claims are made, they should be supported by the record available for that particular claim.
That is important because credibility comes from separating reach from outcome.
School reach
Freedom Charity also records the books and associated educational materials as having reached more than 140 UK schools.
That is an organisational record of known reach. It is not presented as a national coverage estimate.
For schools using the resources, the safeguarding purpose is straightforward: give pupils accurate language about choice, consent, pressure and bodily autonomy, and make routes to trusted help clear.
Why author pages need this distinction
As an author, I am proud that the books have travelled far beyond the circumstances in which I first wrote them.
But authorship and safeguarding impact should not be blurred.
The books are works of fiction written for an educational purpose. Freedom Charity distributes them. The lesson resources are separate educational materials. The PSHE Association Quality Mark applies to those resources.
Keeping those facts separate makes the public record stronger.
Final word
More than 100,000 donated books is a substantial reach figure.
The deeper purpose is harder to count: giving a child language for something they may not yet know how to describe, and giving the adults around them a safer way to begin the conversation.
Stories can open the door. Safeguarding depends on what responsible adults do when a child needs help.
