GRAN is a member of Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage. We are partnering with more than 450 CSOs in more than 70 countries to build an understanding of what it will take to end child marriage. In sub-Saharan Africa, 40% of women are married as children (before age 18). Child Marriage robs girls of their childhood, their education, their health and their future. It holds back girls, their communities and their countries. Progress towards ending child marriage needs to accelerate, warned hundreds of civil society organisations gathered in Casablanca this week for a meeting of Girls Not Brides. Over 250 grassroots activists from 63 countries working on the frontlines of child marriage urged the international community to step up their efforts to end a practice that affects 15 million girls every year.
“We know what it takes to end child marriage. We have the data, we know the issue, we know the causes, we know the interventions required. We just need to act.” said
Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda of Zimbabwe, African Union Goodwill Ambassador for the Campaign to End Child Marriage and General Secretary of World YWCA
Read the Girls Not Brides press release here.