stopchildmarriage-blog

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"Take it- it's for you."

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Let’s put an end to this.

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Help to #endchildmarriage by donating to various projects via crowdfunding platforms such as Women's WorldWide Web (W4) or GlobalGiving! They promote the empowerment of women and girls worldwide and connect donors with grassroots projects all around the world! 🌍

Click the link → https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/take-action/ to find out more about these projects, and how YOU can make your contribution today!

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I'm still a child and I'm pregnant so I feel strange.

A 14-year-old Nepali girl who married at age 12

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Visit the link https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Why-a-minimum-age-of-marriage-of-18.pdf for further information on why we need to raise the minimum age of marriage to 18, and why it is so important to reaching our end goal of stopping child marriage!

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I used to imagine that life would go by laughing and playing. But now, there's no laughter.

A 14-year-old Nepali girl who married at age 12

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Taking legal action to combat child marriage - 

A Big Win for Girls on the Banning of Child Marriage in Gambia

#LevelTheLaw 

http://www.punchng.com/child-marriage-gambia-jail-parents-21-years/

https://www.unicef.org/gambia/media_10505.html

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Chains, चमेली (Chamelee)

A flower blooms for the first time in a lake. She sees the sunshine and grows towards it. Then one day the light dims. She looks down for the first time and sees how brown, polluted the water is. “I’m a happy bride,” she’ll say.

Her perfect countenance. A smooth porcelain features. There were never tears on her face but her heart was always flooded. A vase that was threatened to be knocked off the table if it overflowed.

She burns her fingers at the stove. Maybe scrapping herself with the butcher knife wasn’t an accident. His portion a proud lion’s, hers like a small dog’s. She wondered if she could be full by watching him eat. “Undercooked, this chicken!” Throws it, and–Crash! The plate breaks on her face. A scar that’s the first outside but not the first one within.

The day she saw her childhood fleeting she ran after it. She almost had it when he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled down her skirt. He ran his eyes up and down her tired legs but she already knew that mad, fulminating look in his eyes. She held her panting breath before he raped her.

Malnutrition and weakness gnawed at her her consciousness. Hot fevers. Cold nights. Pregnancy. She had not known why she did not bleed that month. Sanitary? She says Insanity. She who had died and was forced into revival over and over again could no longer feel.

At age 14 she was an adult. The baby’s incongrible cries seem to speak, “Mother, mother!” She had not seen her own in years. Immediately– an ancient memory. Faded pictures. Forgotten words. “I give you these rupees, plus two goats.” Unfulfilled promises were what took her away. “Mother, mother!” Tears cloud her vision.

She blinked but the world was still bleary. Fear. Crying. Weakness. Too many blurs. It’s faint but the doctor says she bleeding too much. She blinks, slowly. Time passes.

The flower plucked too soon– “I’m a happy bride,” she would have said.

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“That’s strange. I always thought I had been born into a fair world.“

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Many parents marry their daughters off when they feel insecure, are uncertain of their abilities in taking care of their children, or simply because they feel it is in her best interest. They feel that they are not capable in providing them with a living, and as a result, send them away whilst harbouring high hopes that they will live a better life.

On the flip side, parents might send their daughters away when facing hardships, as they may see child marriage as a coping mechanism in the face of poverty and violence. Hence, due to their insecurity that their situation will cause the whole family to suffer, they result in such inhumane means of ensuring their survival by marrying their daughters off.

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GENDER INEQUALITY

Child marriage is rooted in gender inequality and the belief that girls and woman are somehow inferior to boys and men.

In many communities where child marriage is a norm, girls do not have as much value as boys and are seen as a burden on their family. In those societies, marrying one’s daughter at a young age can be seen as a way to ease economic hardships by transferring this ‘burden’ to her husband’s family.

Child marriage is also largely driven by patriarchal values and the desire to control female sexuality, for instance, how a girl should present herself, how she should dress, who she should be allowed to see or marry etc.

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Watch this video to find out how ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE can benefit the world! 

In order to successfully meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), we have to first start by ending child marriage.

SO WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? sign up now at https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/ to help a greater cause!!!1!!1 

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This picture shows a safe place session taking place in Zambia. 

SAFE SPACE PROGRAMMES offer a varied curriculum covering life skills, health and financial literacy which provide girls with an opportunity to build their skills, learn and meet friends and mentors in an informal setting and learn about the services they can access in their community.

With the help of these programmes, it acts as a solution to alleviate the problem on child marriages as girls are able to receive lessons to build their self-confidence and gain insightful knowledge through sharing sessions. It also serves as an alternative solution to providing informal education for girls who are unable to attend schools, such as married girls. 

source: https://www.girlsnotbrides.org/how-can-we-end-child-marriage/