You wouldn’t know it just by looking at her, but Hope* had been through a lot in her life.
She is cheerful and talks with enthusiasm. As she welcomes us into her home in a Turkish village, she gives me a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She tells me to sit down and says that supper will soon be ready.
Hope is one of my distant relatives on my mother's side. She's in her late 50s, but her brown eyes shine as if she were much younger you wouldn't know it now, but Hope was married to her husband when she was 13.
More than 700 million women alive at this point in time were married as children, the United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reports. Child marriage affects both males and females, but it is more common for girls to marry young.
On average, 14.2 million girls under the age of 18 marry annually throughout the world, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) says. The most child marriages are in South Asia and sub-saharan Africa, though they actually exist in most countries—to different degrees. According to UNICEF, in South Asia, nearly half of young women are married before they turn 18.
Child marriage is a complex issue. According to Girls Not Brides, a partnership of more than 600 organizations from around the World, there are many factors that cause child marriage to continue to exist. Just some of these factors include lack of education, cultural practices, insecurity, and poverty. Some families believe that girls’ sexuality should be guarded by marriage to protect the girl and the family’s honor. In some communities, a dowry, or price paid for the bride by the groom’s family, is given to the bride.
So while marrying young daughters off is seen as financially beneficial by families in desperation, child marriage still has its share of negative consequences. Marrying young has been recognized as a violation of human rights because it stops girls from attending school, and prevents them from receiving any vocational training. In addition, being a child bride puts girls at the risk of having a pregnancy too early in life, leading to complications for both the mother and the child. It also increases their risk of violence at the hands of their husbands.
But there is hope. Girls Not Brides recommends what it calls “The Theory of Change”. The theory has four categories: empowering young women, mobilizing families and communities, providing services, and establishing and implementing laws and policies. Volunteers work directly with girls and offer “Safe Space programmes”, which teach young women financial skills and other life skills.
Safe Space uses conditional cash transfers, and sometimes gives an animal to poor families so they can raise it for meat; because this helps solve hunger and desperation for families, it has worked to raise the age that girls marry. Theory of Change also advocates for young women by educating male members in their family about gender equality, as well as having discussions with community leaders.
What can you do? You can either donate money to a reputable organization, or share videos from such organizations on Facebook or Twitter if you don't have the money to give. You can also buy an animal for a family in need via Heifer International:
Heifer International http://www.heifer.org/.
PBS also has a list of a few other organizations you can contribute to: http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/341/help.html
* Hope's name was changed, to protect her identity and privacy.
