This is why we support UK aid.

15-year-old Shumi’s parents wanted to marry her to man she had never met. Shumi was against the marriage, and enlisted the support of Jasmin, a neighbour and Save the Children-trained peer leader who runs an advocacy group for girls in the village.

Parents don’t usually marry off their young teenage girls out of cruelty or callousness. They do it because, in the toughest places in the world, it has often been seen as the best way to give their children a secure future. But the consequences for girls forced into child marriage can be devastating: abuse or neglect from a husband they barely know, early, dangerous pregnancy, and the end of their education and any chance of building a future of their choosing.

Save the Children’s ambitious Suchana programme in Bangladesh supports poor families, especially adolescent girls and women of reproductive age, and provides training in education, nutrition, health and advocacy. It was made possible thanks to UK aid funding and it will be running until 2022, by which time we aim to have reached 250,000 families.

Jasmin convinced Shumi’s family she didn’t need to be married and should complete her studies instead – now she’ll get that chance. “I want to be successful in life,” says Shumi. “Now I’ll complete my education and become a good human being.”


#ukaid #childmarriage #girlsrights #genderactivism #ngo #bangladesh #video