Syrian refugee Hened Al Ahmad, 14, stands inside a tent shelter in Rawda, Bekaa Valley. A woman and a young man holding a baby are behind her. Hened, who got married 18 months ago, is now a widow. Her husband died six months after they wed in their homeland. Pregnant at the time, she later miscarried – due, she said, to the pain and fear she felt.

Lebanon, 2014: Syrian refugee Hened Al Ahmad, 14, stands inside a tent shelter in Rawda, Bekaa Valley. A woman and a young man holding a baby are behind her. Hened, who got married 18 months ago, is now a widow. Her husband died six months after they wed in their homeland. Pregnant at the time, she later miscarried – due, she said, to the pain and fear she felt.
Photo Credit: UNFPA

International Women’s Day: Action to end child marriage

In a communique announced in Toronto and New York city, The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA),  formerly the United Nations Fund for Population Activities chose this special day to announce a new programme to protect girls.

It’s calle the “UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage” and is part of a global effort to prevent girls from marrying too young and to support those already married as girls in 12 countries across Africa, Asia and the Middle East where child marriage rates are high. They are: Bangladesh, Burkina faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Sierra Leone Uganda, Yeman, and  Zambia

The UNFPA-UNICEF programme is being supported by Canada, the European Union, Italy, Netherlands, and the UK.

The UN agency says child marriage is a violation of girl’s rights and usually keeps them from getting an education. They often suffer domestic violence, have a higher incidence of contracting HIV/AIDS and a higher rate of mortality due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth.

It also notes that it hurts economies, and leads to a continuing cycle of poverty.

2011 Kenya 14-old Amina Hassan [NAME CHANGED] stands in an area for new arrivals in the Ifo refugee camp near the Kenya-Somalia border. She was seven months pregnant and arrived in the camp with her mother-in-law and other relatives. Amina and her family walked for 26 days from their hometown of Dinsor, Amina has never attended school and was married off by her parents at age 12. Her husband is still in Somalia, searching for work in the southern port city of Kismayu.
2011 Kenya 14-old Amina Hassan [NAME CHANGED] stands in an area for new arrivals in the Ifo refugee camp near the Kenya-Somalia border. She was seven months pregnant and arrived in the camp with her mother-in-law and other relatives. Amina and her family walked for 26 days from their hometown of Dinsor, Amina has never attended school and was married off by her parents at age 12. Her husband is still in Somalia, searching for work in the southern port city of Kismayu. © UNFPA

“The world has awakened to the damage child marriage causes to individual girls, to their future children, and to their societies,” said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake in a press release.  “This new global programme will help drive action to reach the girls at greatest risk – and help more girls and young women realize their right to dictate their own destinies. This is critical now because if current trends continue, the number of girls and women married as children will reach nearly one billion by 2030 – one billion childhoods lost, one billion futures blighted.”

The hope is to eliminate child marriages by 2030

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