“The work of charities like Freedom is helping to ensure no one has to live in fear of FGM. Education is vital to stamping out this abhorrent practice and these resources will help schools looking to tackle these issues and protect their pupils at a critical point in the year.”
Rt. Hon. Nicky Morgan M.P
Former Secretary of State for Education
There is no honour in these crimes.
Why are we using the term Honour Based Violence?
Because it’s convenient, because everyone else does or because we just can’t think of another way of describing these horrendous human rights abuses that affect the most vulnerable in our society?
November 2022, the Global Sustainable Development Congress, hosted by the Unversity of Glasgow and convened by Times Higher Education. The Word of the day, “Be Brave” – includes women and girls that cannot reach Global Sustainable Development goals. These girls are always facing difficulties due to fam
I was honored to be asked to be a keynote speaker as the founder of Freedom Charity, and I thank them for a wonderful Congress of brilliant speakers and a historic, imposing venue. I also thank the great support from all the people that I met on the day.
Though sad that I could not attend the other days, I had a great time regardless
Mary Robinson is an adjunct professor of climate justice at Trinity College Dublin and chair of The Elders. She served as president of Ireland between 1990 and 1997. Mary Robinson spoke in great detail about how the future of climate should be in the curriculum of all education sectors of the future. This means that future generations have the knowledge and know-how to make the earth cleaner and safer.
Dr. Tony Chan became president of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in 2018. Chan did this after nearly a decade as president of The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He believes that universities should chang their values in terms of climate change. Chan Belives that the earth needs bright minds to push sustainability to everyone.
When I think about Global Sustainable Development I believe many people overlook the role of women and girls. This is because
forced marriage and FGM are both hidden crimes and not many people know that these crimes are happening, mainly because of the secrecy and unknown nature of these abductions/attacks on those that are being targeted.
I came up with the Face of Trigeminal neuralgia campaign for people that have trigeminal neuralgia, but also for their friends and family that support and help them through tough times. The Trigeminal Neuralgia day felt incredibly important especially as it came to fruition in facial pain month. These people that have Trigeminal neuralgia suffer through the most painful condition in the world often called suicide disease. The condition is invisible no visible way to diagnose it, only the pain the sufferer goes through. This is why i came up with the Face of TN idea, as it now has a viewable symptom.
Everybody has a trigeminal nerve in their face, but not everyone’s trigeminal nerve causes excruciating pain. Asking people to do The Face Of TN is the start of raising awareness, but it is no easy task. I think it’s important to show the nerve as its aim is to visualize an invisible condition. For me, the pain often feels like shards of glass, razor blades, or electric shocks attacking my face. These attacks mainly surface on the v3 nerve which is on the lower part of my face for instance.
I’m humbled at the number of people that have taken up the Face of TN on social media. All the people that have drawn, painted, and modeled the TN nerve on their faces have shown what the pain feels like and I am immensely proud of them for this. This is extremely brave for letting others know the pain you’re in. The Face of TN is the start of awareness and also the start of a cure.
People that suffer from trigeminal neuralgia have said that because the pain is so extreme, they couldn’t possibly draw or paint anything on their faces. I can completely empathize with this as I have trigeminal neuralgia on both sides of my face.
Jess Utting is starting up as a talented makeup artist who did all the makeup on myself. The makeup needed to show the right colour and nerve design, which she came up with by herself. She had done a great deal of research and was able to collaborate with me on #FacofTN. The result of this was the massive amount of people that put the nerve on their face, and the huge number of people it attracted.
Being the CEO of TNA in the UK involves trying to come up with innovative ideas that will bring the whole world together in light of this awful condition. As the 7th of October is national Trigeminal Neuralgia awareness day, we produced a professional short video that meant that we were able to share this on many platforms and I am truly proud of the amounts of views we’ve had and the uptake on this. This year has been the pilot of the Face of TN challenge, we hope you and the people you know will take up the challenge to highlight this incredibly painful condition not only in the UK but around the world
