Ending Child Marriage With This Generation
Tamara Kreinin
An adolescent girl living in poverty could be the most powerful person in the world. If she is reached early enough, she can accelerate economies, arrest major global health issues and break cycles of poverty.
When a girl gets a chance to stay in school, remain healthy, gain skills, she will marry later, have fewer and healthier children, and earn an income that she’ll invest back into her family and community. When she can grow into a woman and become an educated mother, an economic actor, an ambitious entrepreneur, or a prepared employee, she breaks the cycle of poverty. She and everyone around her benefits.
Child marriage is one of the barriers preventing the 600 million adolescent girls in developing countries from unleashing their full potential. One in seven is forced into marriage before the age of 15, and if these trends continue, 100 million girls will marry over the next decade – that is about 25,000 children married every day for the next 10 years.
