Global Citizen 

In each Stories Issue, we collect stories from women around the world. These stories are authentic, raw, and unapologetic. They are emotional. They are stories not often told. We hope their stories of strength will spark necessary conversations about child marriage and, most importantly, change these practices for the betterment of women everywhere.

Beauty and Hope

Suria

12 year old Suria started going to a DFID funded safe space last year and is part of the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Programme - an empowerment programme that involves weekly girls group meetings with training on health, life skills and financial education, a voucher for health services, and a girl-friendly savings account. 

Yalemwork

Yalemwork was married when she was just 3 years old but has since become a key advocate for ending child marriage in her community. The UK funded Finote Hiwot programme runs community discussions about early marriage in her village which has resulted in many girls like Yalemwork escaping child marriage.

Taketu

Taketu was married at 14, which is the average age for marriage where she lives in Ethiopia. She didn’t know the man she was forced to marry until the wedding day. Girl Hub are working in the region with policy makers, donors and partners in the private sector to ensure that girls like Taketu are at the heart of the development agenda in Ethiopia.

Bayush and Friends

Education is one of the strongest factors in whether a girl will be forced into early marriage or not. Thanks to grants made available to targeted households, girls like Bayush and her friends have been able to stay in school and avoid child marriage.

Phillimon

Phillimon is the village headman in Chamuka, Zambia and works with paralegals, traditional chiefs and the Community Crime Prevention Unit to take action on preventing early marriages from taking place in the community.

For the full story, read Child Marriage: 6 beautiful stories of hope by Caroline Dollman

Inspired by South Asian traditions that naturally nourish skin in transparent and holistic ways, Yellow Beauty seeks to solve complicated problems with ingredients you can feel good about, while helping girls be girls. Yellow Beauty donates 10% of profits to Plan International Canada projects that work to help end child marriage.