Breaking Vows: Early and Forced Marriage and Girls’ Education 2011
Education-based interventions delay and prevent early and forced marriage: • Funded by Plan, USAID and MBOSCUDA, the Girls Scholarship Programme in Cameroon provides scholarships and mentoring support to primary and secondary school girls, particularly in regions with lower enrolment rates and to the most marginalised groups, such as young, married girls. The project educates parents and their communities on the importance of girls’ education through workshops and debates organised by student mentors. The project has contributed to a drop in pregnancy and marriage rates and a change in the behaviour of mothers who often opposed their daughters’ education and who now advocate to see their children - both sons and daughters - go to school. Girls themselves feel more empowered and raise their voice against parental decisions to give them away in marriage – previously a taboo in the Mbororo society.50 • The Ethiopian Ministry of Youth and Sport, working with regional and local governments and international partners, initiated the Berhane Hewan (‘Light for Eve’) programme in 2004. The programme aimed to prevent early marriage and support married adolescent girls by focusing on three areas: mentorship by adult women, continuation of school, and employment training for girls who were not in school. Over the course of two years the programme, which targeted girls aged between 10 and 19 in the Amhara region, increased girls’ school attendance, age at marriage, friendship networks, and knowledge of reproductive health and contraceptive use. The intervention owed its success to the attention it paid to the complex challenges of the girls’ social isolation and economic disadvantage.51 • Alternative education and training programmes in Kenya for girls who have missed out on schooling led to a fall in early marriage and helped women assert themselves.52 • In India, education programmes have been shown to reduce the frequency of early marriage when issues that deny girls their right to education are addressed along with dowry matters. The same pattern has been observed in Guatemala, Thailand and Mali.53
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