21 March 2026 at 19:30 – 21:00
Venue: On zoom
Our speaker Florence Blondel is a population and development specialist, activist, and award-winning journalist working at the intersection of population dynamics, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), girls’ rights, and environmental sustainability. Originally from Sub-Saharan Africa, she holds an MSc in Population and Development from the London School of Economics and is the founder of FlowReady, a menstrual education initiative supporting girls in rural Uganda and beyond.
Florence's talk will explore how, in a world marked by deep inequality, ecological strain, and widening divides, conversations about population are often avoided, misunderstood, or dismissed as too uncomfortable to engage with. Yet for many communities — particularly in low-income countries — population growth is inseparable from lived experiences of poverty, hunger, early/child marriage, constrained choice, and environmental stress. And indeed accelerating girls’ and women’s empowerment is not only morally essential in its own right – it’s also critical to solving all of our environmental crises.
Drawing on lived experience from Sub-Saharan Africa and years of work in population, development, and reproductive justice, her talk will explore why population matters precisely because of the suffering it shapes, and why silence can itself cause harm. Framed through Quaker values of truth, compassion, and care for the most vulnerable, it will invite Friends to consider how a Spirit-led community might engage difficult conversations with humility, empathy, and moral courage — seeking connection and common ground rather than division.
Note: Registration at BYM is necessary to join this event. To do this follow this link.