A year ago, sitting on the sofa eating chocolate we were chatting and thought-showering ideas around the book Cut Flowers. It’s about Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) written for school children and comes with PHSE accredited lesson plans. It seems a life time ago.
Finding the right language that wouldn’t offend, scare, or get people running out the room screaming — has been a real challenge. The word vagina has been said in my front room more times in the last year than the whole 200 year history of the house! Funnily enough even my mum, who always refers to it as private parts, is now more comfortable using the right language.
Its mid-June and the days are ticking to the launch of Cut Flowers.
The book cover has been designed but we’ve decided to keep it under wraps until the day of launch. The stop-clock has been set on the CutFlowersFGM.com website. Hundreds of e-mails have gone back and forth over the past 48 hours and the proof has now been finally approved. And I’m beyond excited about seeing the first copy come off the press.
The great and the good will be descending on one of the highest buildings in London on the 28 June 2016 where Cut Flowers will be launched. And I’m really praying that it can make a difference to educate and stop FGM. There will be 500 limited edition copies of Cut Flowers that will be auctioned and sold to raise funds for Freedom charity at the event. This will help Freedom charity to get the book into every school in the UK. Eradicating FGM in a generation — I believe — could become a reality.
Cut Flowers will be available soon on the Freedom charity website and Amazon . There will also be a Kindle.
The books I wrote, how they are used in schools, and the safeguarding outcomes recorded
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