— Ending child marriage.
— 12 million girls are married each year
In Bangladesh, the legal age of marriage is 18 years old. But up to 71% of girls are already married when they celebrate this birthday. In fact, more than one-fifth of girls in Bangladesh find themselves married before age 15 – the highest rate in the world. It’s a vicious cycle fueled by generations of poverty, absence of economic opportunity, and a lack of access to education. Through the Sustainable Development Goals set out by UNICEF, the world was committed to ending child marriage by 2030. But with the global pandemic, progress has drastically slowed down. Although the pre-pandemic projection was 100 million child brides by 2030, in the next decade, up to 10 million more girls will be at the risk of getting married in their early teens. And that's over 110 million childhoods stolen.
— The superpower of choice
These girls deserve a voice. They deserve to choose. That’s why we’re proud to partner with Plan International Canada, a global organization focused on advancing children’s rights and equality for girls, by contributing 10% of our profits to projects they support.
Together we’re equipping girls and boys with the information they need to say ‘no’ to child marriage. We’re also mobilizing families and communities to be part of a fundamental attitude shift towards the harmful consequences of child marriage. And because these issues are so often systemic, we’re also helping to scale up age verification and marriage registration systems at all levels of government to equip local leaders with the tools they need to address the problem at the source.
— We’re working towards a future where children understand and exercise their rights
We’re working towards a future where children understand and exercise their rights. A future where they’re able to make informed choices about the sort of lives they want to live. That freedom demands that girls (and boys!) have a real decision about if, when, and who they want to marry. It’s possible. It’s within reach. With your help, we’ll get there.