What was your biggest concern when you were 12 years old? Was it making sure you left class early enough to grab a seat by your best friends in your middle school’s lunch room? Or preparing for your impending marriage to a man twice your age?

Tehani, Age 8: Majed, Age 27: Ghada, Age 8: Saltan, Age 33 (Yemen).

According to the Council on Foreign Relations, for millions of girls across all parts of the globe, child marriage is a grim, cyclical reality. Girls are often seen as an economic burden to their already impoverished families as they are heavily discriminated against in the work force and subsequently have few ways to provide for themselves.  In developing countries, an estimated one in three girls is married before the age of 18 and one in nine before 15 (UNFPA).

Lack of educational opportunities  is often a heavy contributor to child marriage. Instead of paying costly school fees, families at times feel forced to make the decision to marry off their daughter to alleviate a portion of their financial hardships. This practice perpetuates a vicious cycle of poverty and dependence for girls as child marriage all but eliminates the chance for the girl to grow independently through schooling and income-earning jobs. However, families often feel they simply have no other option but to “marry off” their daughters as they have no way to provide even basic necessities for her.

The vast inequalities that women inherently face in the developing world are only intensified with the continuation of child marriage.  And these inequalities don’t just affect those directly involved. Inequalities for ‘the half’ -those most marginalized- affect the whole of society. According to the United Nations, economic growth is slowed and reduced, personal security for all is threatened, the affects of conflicts and disasters are exaggerated, and, perhaps the greatest loss, half of society’s brain power and potential is wasted as inequalities continue to be accepted.

Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, said “Education for girls is one of the best strategies for protecting girls against child marriage.” Expanding access to primary and secondary education can delay, and even prevent, early marriage.  According to a study conducted by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), girls with just 0-3 years of education were up to six times more likely to marry before adulthood than girls who had received a secondary education.

Invisible Children is committed to empowering and investing in women through our education and livelihood initiatives.  Since 2005, our Legacy Scholarship Program (LSP) has funded 978 girls in their secondary and university educations, has taught women in rural communities how to read and write, and has provided women benefiting from our programs with trainings in women’s rights, land rights, and other issues they face on a daily basis.

By the end of this decade, 142 million children will be married before the age of 18 if current trends continue (UNFPA). Education has proven to be the single most effective way to defer or prevent marriage before adulthood. Many organizations, including Invisible Children, continue to create and fund innovative education initiatives worldwide to help combat child marriage. To support Invisible Children’s programs, become a member of the Fourth Estate or a Legacy Scholarship donor.

-Dana Gallaty

(Photo credit: Stephanie Sinclair)