Summary
Child marriage, or “any formal marriage or informal union where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of age,” is a human rights violation and must be stopped. What strategies to end child marriage have been the most impactful thus far? Moving forward, how can/should organizations dedicated to ending child marriage refocus their efforts? Is there opportunity for them to work more collaboratively?
Personal Statement
In my sophomore year at Paly, I chose to do my first social justice PBL project on researching child marriage and organized a postcard campaign in support of HR5034. This year I returned to the same topic but took a different approach. I focused on the area of education and how it impacts/factors into the life of a former child bride. I achieved this by working together with CAMFED, an organization that works to provide access to education to women and girls in Subsaharan Africa. I chose to continue with this topic because it is something I wasn't very familiar with at all, but I wanted to know more about it. With access to education women can do amazing things: launch businesses, become health workers, run schools, and lead governments, making the world a better place for everyone.