LEARN6 - American girls fighting child marriage

On the UN womenwatch I found the new story "American girls raise awareness and money to fight child marriage in four countries", including an very informative interview with Gina Reiss-Wilchins, Director of the Girl Up campaign.

Every day, girls as young as five years old are robbed of their childhood because they cease being girls and become brides.

However, thousands of American girls between the ages of 13 and 18 who are outraged after learning about child marriage are working to fight it.

These girls are raising awareness and funds to help the UN Foundation's Girl Up campaign support programmes in four countries: Ethiopia, Liberia, Malawi, and Guatemala.

http://www.unmultimedia.org/radio/english/2012/05/american-girls-ra...

In this telephone interview Gina Reiss-Wilchins brought many decent facts about child marriage. 27 thousend young girls under 18 are forced into marriage every day. The main reason is mostly poverty in these girls' families. After marriage the girl will leave the household so they don't need to pay for her food, clothing etc. Also the girl's family can get a so called "bride price" in form of money and presents. There are also traditional reasons why girls are forced to marriage.

Gina Reiss-Wilchins pointed out the harmfulness of child marriage. For example it can lead to prenancy while puberty and generally a lower education.

There is not enough help in these poor countries so American girls help to collect money for the UN Foundation's Girl Up campaign. She mentioned a girl using her own birthday party and raised 27 thousend dollars in one day.