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Diary of an ICS volunteer: host families, hard work and hot chai

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Asia, Development Debates, Economic Development, Girls & Women, International Citizen Service
International Citizen Service volunteer Vix in her sari

Romana was a young girl when her family told her she was getting married. This is not unusual in Bangladesh; according to UNICEF, nearly two-thirds of girls are married before the age of 18 and more than a quarter of …

One year on from the Girl Summit: are we any closer to ending child marriage?

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Africa, Asia, Development Debates, Girls & Women, Other
Annet, 17-years-old, Western Uganda: "I have been out of school for over a year now. I was here at home doing nothing so one of the evenings I met a man who promised to provide for me. A few weeks later I was pregnant and I went to live with him.” Picture: Rebecca Vassie/Girls Not Brides. All rights reserved.

Working on a taboo subject can be isolating and demoralising and, as evidenced by the experience of some Girls Not Brides members focused on ending child marriage within their communities, even life-threatening. Until a few years ago, child marriage was such …

Girls can drive development

Girls participate in a mentoring session in Niamey, part of the Action for Adolescent Girls initiative, in June 2014. Picture: UNFPA/Satvika Chalasani

Adolescent girls can play an enormous role in bringing about sustainable development. But for too long their rights and potential have been overlooked by world leaders, and this has held back development and equality. At last international momentum is building …

"I'm changing the way your story starts" – A Gambian gift on Mother’s Day

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Africa, Female Genital Mutilation, Girls & Women, Other

I had a moment of dizzying clarity during a visit to The Gambia last month, when policy lines revisited in briefings, meetings and documents burst back into life, regained their power and gave a renewed sense of purpose to my …

Tackling violence against women and girls in India

Since 2010 I’ve served as the UK’s first ministerial champion for tackling violence against women and girls (VAWG) overseas, and developing this role has kept me quite busy. From the UN to the UAE, I’ve compared notes with ministers, officials …

An African-led movement for change

23- year-old Adjura, who was cut when she was a child, had a reversal operation in 2009. Picture: Jessica Lea/DFID

What do you get when you combine a vibrant First Lady, a country in which most women have undergone female genital mutilation and many are facing health problems and complications in pregnancy, and funding from donor countries to support a …

BBC’s Casualty shows female genital mutilation for what it is - violence against girls and women

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Development Debates, Female Genital Mutilation

In 2010, two British survivors of female genital mutilation (FGM) and I started a charity called Daughters of Eve in order to mainstream the issue and change how it is addressed.  FGM has been a criminal offence in the UK since …