This month our country of focus is Ethiopia, where World Vision’s Strong Women, Strong World initiative is working to provide change as a response to the needs of women and girls living in poverty in developing nations. The following story was contributed by Aklilu Kassaye, World Vision Ethiopia. Habtam Nigussie was not interested in marriage. … Continue reading »
From World Vision, by James Addis: Children are dropping out of school and being sold into early marriages as desperate families struggle to get food in drought-stricken areas of Niger. An estimated 16,000 children in the northwest Tillabéry region alone have dropped out of school in order to find work to help support their families. … Continue reading »
Last month at the Social Good Summit, Archbishop Desmond Tutu announced Girls Not Brides, a new global partnership to end child marriage. This traditional practice is very harmful to young girls, often cutting their education short and leading to early pregnancy. Biddle asks the question, “Did you know that the leading cause of death for … Continue reading »
The National Geographic Daily News has published “A Conversation About Child Brides“, written by Caroline Gerdes. The article is intended to make sure that the voices of those impacted most by this practice are heard. Caroline writes this about the photo shown above “One instance in the article discusses when Gorney and Sinclair witnessed the … Continue reading »
From Reuters: “It’s done in the dark,” said Fatuma Ahmed, squatting inside her makeshift stick shelter. “Some people sell their daughters at a tender age so they can get food. It’s common but people are silent about it.” Prolonged drought in northern Kenya has pushed many families, like widow Ahmed and her seven children, toward … Continue reading »
From Cindy Breilh, Women of Vision National Director, traveling in Africa: We ended our days in rural Kenya talking with the gender and development specialist for World Vision Kenya. What we had seen and heard defied our Western sensibilities and we sought to understand why girls and women, especially in rural areas, face such an … Continue reading »
From The Guardian: One girl below the age of 18 is married off every three seconds worldwide, according to a community development charity which is calling for the British government to help end child marriage. Plan UK will publish a report this week entitled Breaking Vows which states that 10 million under 18s become child … Continue reading »
From National Geographic: “…Child marriage spans continents, language, religion, caste. In India the girls will typically be attached to boys four or five years older; in Yemen, Afghanistan, and other countries with high early marriage rates, the husbands may be young men or middle-aged widowers or abductors who rape first and claim their victims as … Continue reading »
From CNN: New Delhi – Nineteen-year-old Kalawati Kumari stares at her 11-month-old baby boy filled with both love and regret. She wishes her life could be different. “I did not want to have children now. I want to study.” Kumari didn’t want to get married either. But when she was 11, her parents arranged her marriage. … Continue reading »
From McClatchy Newspapers: …As Africa experiences one of the greatest population explosions ever recorded, millions of girls are forced into leaving the classroom and marrying early, often to ease the financial strains on their large families. By jump-starting their own child-bearing years, experts say, these young brides become trapped in a cycle of poverty, expose … Continue reading »