Can Girls be Girls and not Brides?

For the centuries it has taken the world to make a case to end child marriage, it is shocking that we are in 2023 and still dealing with the issue of child marriage. Statistics reveal that there are over 12 million child brides globally and very worrying is the statistic that it will take us over 300 years to end child marriage if the work to end child marriage is not catalyzed beyond the current rate of intervention.

The thought of still talking about child marriage now hurts, let along the thought of still dealing with this menace in 300 years from now. Child marriage transforms the life of the children, particularly girls whose education is often cut short. Also, the girl is likely to be thrown into her husband's home with new rules of conduct which severe her from the rest of her childhood experiences and relegates her to the indoors managing her new home. Next, she becomes pregnant and is quickly thrust into a whole new world of advanced home management which includes caring for a newborn when she s herself still a child. If she suffers health complications during her pregnancy, she is again thrown into a new world of becoming one who is being cared for while surviving Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) or Cervical Cancer. And if she survives health complications during her pregnancy, she finds herself in a cycle of series of childbirth until she matures into an adult and struggles to feed and keep her home amidst the cycle of poverty she finds herself because she did not complete her education and lacks the skills to freedom to be employed or to earn an income to support her home.

Let me state here that there are a few girls who have been able to get an education while being married, or who were able to leverage the support systems in their families to survive the child marriage they were engaged in. However, the statistics of those lucky few are too nominal to hold on to. And this is why there are so many survivors of child marriages in our world and the cycle of violence and poverty continues to be perpetuated. Despite the laws and policies that exist in our countries to protect the rights of children, especially girls, there continues to be huge violations of the rights of girls in our world. The drivers of child marriages range from poverty to social and gender norms, weak policies and legislation, poor political will, ineffective systems to curb impunity and the list goes on and on. We need robust and intentional interventions to provide holistic support to survivors of child marriage, including vocational and skills support for those who can no longer integrate into the education system and mental and psychosocial support for those who have endured trauma and abuse in the home environment.

We have got to be intentional about protecting the rights and welfare of vulnerable girls and continue to scale interventions that target vulnerable girls with skills building, and other empowerment programs that give girls agency and support them to improve their livelihood chances. I am excited about series of programs providing education to girls, economic empowerment and building the voices and agency of adolescent girls. However, we need to see these interventions scale to catalyze the work to end child marriage on our planet. This keeps me up at night when I think about the things that keep me up at night in my work. Let's join efforts to end child marriage in our world. Our girls deserve so much more!