This post is a little off topic for me, but my wife is currently working all the hours she has on a major event happening in July.

It is the first ‘Girl Summit’, aimed at mobilising domestic and international efforts to end female genital mutilation (FGM) and child, early and forced marriage (CEFM) within a generation.

These are issues which, until this event, had not really crossed my radar, but it’s become increasingly clear to me, through Alice’s work, that these are issues which should cross all our radars.  So I thought I would share a few little facts I have picked up over the last few weeks:

• Child brides have twice the pregnancy death rate of women in their 20s
• It is estimated that 1/3 of girls in the developing world will be married before the age of 18
• In the last decade 1 in 9 girls have been forced into marriage between the ages of 10 and 15
• When a girl in the developing world receives 7 years of education, she marries four year later and has 2.2 fewer children
• Each year an estimated 3 million girls experience genital mutilation or cutting
• Think this is just a developing world problem? 20,000 girls in the UK are at risk of FGM every year.

So what can you do…SIGN THE PLEDGE NOW click on the pledge link here and then click the facebook or twitter link to pledge your support.  A pledge takes 1 minute to do but shows we all have a role to play in bringing attention to this issue and making a change.  Lecture over!

To find out more see these fantastic organisations doing critical work on FGM and child and forced marriage…Girl Effect, Girls Not Brides, Plan UK, Forward, Equality Now, Orchid Project and UNICEF