The consequences of early child marriage are far-reaching and harmful. From denial of education and perpetuation of poverty to increased risk of pregnancy complications and sexual and gender-based violence, the negative impact on young girls can last throughout their lives.

Anike Foundation recently helped Brighter Initiatives for Revitalization & Development (BIRD-Liberia) receive a grant from Girls Not Brides to launch the Her Choice, Her Rights, Her Life project in Monrovia, Liberia to raise awareness of and prevent early marriage in the city and its environs.

WHO IS BIRD?

BIRD-Liberia is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2014. Through programs centering on agriculture, health, education, women and children, BIRD promotes the livelihood of people in poor communities from dependency to self-sufficiency through ecological sustainability and the empowerment of young girls and women.

THE PROJECT

The goal of the Her Choice, Her Rights, Her Life project was to build support for ending child marriage in Liberia and assure equal rights for women and girls. To accomplish this, the project developed and implemented an advocacy campaign in five spheres:  community, government, media, school, and civil society.  The campaign was coordinated by five school and five community members trained as activists.

Project Activities

The project ran for six months, from April 2022 to September 2022. It kicked off with a launch meeting, during which BIRD’s executive director, Sammenie O. Sydney,   explained the project's primary focus — to prevent child marriage in Liberia. After his remarks, young girls and adolescents shared experiences and stories about early child marriage and its negative effect on girls and society.

Next on the project’s agenda was a one-day training of the ten activists. The activists participated in group work to  discuss causes of child marriages such as poverty, lack of education, traditional beliefs, and lack of empowerment opportunities for females. Closing remarks outlined the importance of activists to engage their colleagues, communities and authorities to end child marriages.

Following the one-day training, several follow-up activities were conducted, including a one-day safeguarding policy dialogue, school awareness raising on the harmful effects of child marriage, a one-day meeting with activists to have their stories and experiences documented and shared, and an online commemoration of the International Day of the Girl Child with BIRD’s staff, volunteers, partners, and activists who shared  messages with graphics on child marriage and related issues on their individual and official social media pages.

Project Outcomes

The project was a success! Over 200 students, activists and partners gained knowledge on how to prevent forced and early marriages and learned the benefits of completing school. Additionally, partner organizations gained new information on the importance of safeguarding policies and have committed to developing their own guidelines to protect girls, mainly for schools. These partner organizations have committed to take all measures to end abuses against female students and are now rolling out new education and awareness campaigns surrounding child and/or early marriage. Traditional authorities have committed and pledged to serve as ambassadors and roll out education and appropriate actions to end child and early marriages within traditional settings.

Lessons Learned

A few highlights of learnings expressed by participants in the project activities include:

• There are many myths, traditional, ethnic and individual perceptions about early child marriages, wealthy promises and greed for wealth, and/or need for help that can lead to many families considering and taking wrong or unsafe actions.

• Many young female students and girls have little or no interest in getting married at an early age and/or being forced into marriage. They suffer from these wrongs done to them; they are looking for help and support.

• If no actions are taken, the youthful generation of girls will be forced into child marriage, negatively affecting national development and growth.

“I’ve been talking to friends in my community. I’ve encouraged them to reject child marriage, and focus on education.”

Yembeh Gbemah, student in Liberia.

Final Thought

Thanks to Anike Foundation, the generous support of Girls Not Brides, all implementing partners, and the hard work of BIRD-Liberia, there is an increased knowledge of the detrimental effect of early marriage in the Monrovia area. But, there is a need to increase more awareness in schools all over the country.

 Please help BIRD-Liberia continue its efforts to reach more students, partners, activists and schools to raise awareness about early childhood marriage. Consider supporting Anike Foundation and BIRD-Liberia by clicking our “Donate” button at the bottom of this page.