Stepping Up Against Child Marriage

Any form of marriage before the age of 18 for both girls and boys is child marriage. Marriage before the age of 18 – is a human rights violation. Despite laws against it, the harmful practice remains widespread in our country, Malawi. Child marriage is often the result of entrenched gender inequality, making girls disproportionately affected by the practice. Globally, the prevalence of child marriage among boys is just one sixth that among girls.
Child marriage robs girls of their childhood and threatens their lives and health. Girls who marry before they turn 18 are less likely to remain in school and more likely to experience domestic violence.

Young teenage girls are more likely to die due to complications in pregnancy and childbirth than women in their 20s, and their children are more likely to be stillborn or die in the first month of life.

Child marriage has a devastating life time experience. Most girls who end up in marriage, they end up experiencing all forms of violence.

We need to continually work and engage our communities’, traditional leaders, faith leaders, and the youths to champion and change the culture of child marriage.

Malawi made a historic amendment to its constitution to fully outlaw child marriage in February 2017 following a huge campaign led by young people. Our founder Ms. Memory Banda was a part of this huge campaign from 2016 to 2017.

Foundation for Girls leadership is working to address and respond to the root causes and the challenges that girls experience through child marriage and provide alternative pathways to end child marriage. Foundation for Girls Leadership is empowering girls with leadership, and life skills, and mentorship programs and trainings to equip them to be able to overcome their everyday challenges and reach their goals. F4GL is also providing education opportunities to the most vulnerable girls and boys and supporting them with learning materials to keep them in school. Through our project “Empower Her to Empower” project funded by the Freedom Fund in rural Lilongwe; we have been able to reach to over 1,000 girls directly.

“If efforts against child marriage are not made in Malawi, girls will continue to marry before the age of 18, and Malawi will not have achieved one of its 2030 agenda to end child marriage. I call upon everyone to take part in investing in girl’s education and wellbeing, the government through its technocrats must work to popularize the laws against child marriage, the government must also commit to providing comprehensive sexual education to adolescents and the youths. We must all take action to end Child Marriage” _____ Memory Banda