Children are becoming brides. This is how you can stop it

By Kerri Whelan
March 5, 2022

Every day, girls are being forced to give up school uniforms for wedding gowns. When a girl becomes a wife, household duties don’t leave time for education. But school is her dream — marriage is her nightmare.

Though the facts of child marriage are heartbreaking, this isn’t a hopeless situation. Take the quiz below to test your knowledge about child marriage and discover how you can take direct, immediate action with Plan International USA to protect girls from becoming brides.

Getting an education as a girl in Senegal isn’t easy. Especially now with COVID-19, parents are reconsidering if they can afford to pay for their daughters’ school fees. They might start to envision how a husband could provide for her, and how they’ll even receive a bride price.

But what about what she can achieve on her own with an education?

Plan USA is working in Kédougou, Senegal to help girls take their power back with our Girls Learn & Thrive program. When you support Girls Learn & Thrive, you’re giving girls the tools they need to stay in school and out of marriage. The girls themselves influence every step of this project through our unique GirlEngage approach — from designing life-skills activities, to leading community action projects, to measuring progress for girls’ rights.

Why GirlEngage? Here’s a story of something incredible that happened when the participating girls used their voices and put themselves in the driver’s seat of the program …

When Plan staff consulted with the community in Kédougou at the start of the program, local leaders told us that adolescent girls don’t feel comfortable talking with their mothers about sex and marriage. Instead, they go to “aunties,” sometimes called godmothers, who are female community health workers.

But as part of our GirlEngage approach, we also consulted with the girls. And they had a different perspective.

It was true that the girls didn’t feel comfortable going to their mothers to talk about sex or marriage. But they wanted that to change. They said to keep girls in school and out of marriage, their moms needed to be a part of the team.

So now, mother-daughter groups are a core part of the program — in safe spaces, Plan facilitators help girls have honest talks with their moms about what they truly want for their futures, as well as normally taboo topics like puberty and sex. We also know that child marriage is closely entwined with financial stability, so the mother-daughter groups focus on improving financial literacy and building savings habits, too.

Real change is happening when girls are at the helm. But to keep making progress in Senegal, they need your support now.

Child marriage is a life sentence. Will you help keep the dream of education alive for girls?

Take immediate action