“In Malawi, people look at a girl and they see a bride,” says Memory, whose sister was forced into marriage after falling pregnant at just eleven years old. “Girls are robbed of their childhood.”
This devastating reality is true not only for Memory’s little sister, but for half of young women in Malawi, which has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world.
But now, thanks to Memory and an inspirational group of youth advocates supported by Plan International, a different future for Malawi’s young people is possible.
In August the Malawian youth advocates are ...
“In Malawi, people look at a girl and they see a bride,” says Memory, whose sister was forced into marriage after falling pregnant at just eleven years old. “Girls are robbed of their childhood.”
This devastating reality is true not only for Memory’s little sister, but for half of young women in Malawi, which has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world.
But now, thanks to Memory and an inspirational group of youth advocates supported by Plan International, a different future for Malawi’s young people is possible.
In August the Malawian youth advocates are convening a special conference where they’ll work with decision-makers to amend a provision in the constitution that allows children to marry between 16 and 18 with parental consent.
These amazing young people are on the verge of history by making child marriage illegal once and for all. They’ve changed the law before – when the minimum age of marriage was raised from 15 to 18 last year. But with your support they can now fix the constitutional loophole that lets parents get around that legislation.
Please sign their petition now. We’ll deliver it at the conference and together we’ll stand with these young advocates to help end child marriage in Malawi.