A recent UN report documents the importance of a new program called Safe Space which targets women who have been married off at a young age. It recruits them to learn new skills and eventually return to pursue an education. I thought this was a timely story considering the She’s the First event on March 30th which will screen the film on child marriage. Here is some of what they say and the link to the story is below. I’d be interested in know your thoughts on how to reduce rates of child marriage and on how to help existing child brides.
From UN web site: “Fati’s and Aichatou’s stories of forced marriage are common in Niger – which, at 75 per cent, has the world’s highest rate of child marriage and, at 10 per cent, one of its lowest rates of girls enrolled in secondary school. This landlocked nation of 20 million is also one of the world’s poorest countries, and in 2014, ranked 188 out of 188 countries in the UN’s Human Development Index.
Investing in adolescent girls’ education and empowerment could prove key to strengthening the labour force and sparking economic growth in Niger – and in lower-income countries around the world. However, child brides and adolescent mothers are much less likely to attend school than other girls, meaning before countries can tap into the transformative potential of the 600 million adolescent girls on the planet today, they must reduce rates of both.”
– See more at: http://www.unfpa.org/news/honour-roll-child-brides-return-school-niger#sthash.Izx5X5up.dpuf