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"Child marriage, which is defined as marriage before the age of 18 but often impacts girls not yet in their teens, has been regarded as a tradition in many cultures. Families may view it as a way to escape extreme poverty or a method to ensure security for their daughters (as strange as that may sound in this instance) in the perceived absence of other options. The reality is, child marriage happens to girls because they lack support to make another choice. For them, there is no other choice. Each day nearly 39,000 girls under the age of 18 become child brides (that&amp;#x27;s one about every two seconds), according to CARE, which, with British Prime Minister David Cameron, hosted the Girl Summit in London on July 22, focusing on child marriages and female genital mutilation. Nepali and Bangladeshi girls are educated with the support of CARE&amp;#x27;s program. According to CARE, girls who complete secondary school are six times less likely to become child brides. I spoke with Sabitra Dhakal, project manager of the Tipping Point, CARE Nepal&amp;#x27;s program to prevent child marriage and improve the rights of girls. Dhakal is on the ground in Nepal and also presented at the Girl Summit about how child marriage impacts girls and what we can do to help. What&amp;#x27;s the Long-Term Impact of Child Marriage on Girls and Society? The impact goes beyond the obvious. &amp;quot;When children don&amp;#x27;t have the opportunity to get an education and to learn life and vocational skills, their whole life is affected. Any doors to opportunities and possibilities are closed,&amp;quot; says Dhakal. &amp;quot;They will continue the same practices in the future. We can&amp;#x27;t expect them to be a champion of women&amp;#x27;s rights and to challenge patriarchy, instead they will be a strong follower of patriarchy. Also, because of the psychological consequences of child marriage, their self-esteem is hugely reduced. They will not be strong enough to cope with all the different problems that they will come across throughout life.&amp;quot; At What Age Do Child Marriages Occur? For those of us in the Western world in 2014, this can be heartbreaking to process. &amp;quot;The age of marriage varies between countries, communities, and localities, but in Nepal [where Dhakal works], the average married age of boys and girls is around seven to eight years,&amp;quot; she says. (Although girls can be married off to adult males as well.) &amp;quot;There are two steps of marriage in southern Nepal. First, they marry. At this stage, the girls don&amp;#x27;t need to go to their husband&amp;#x27;s house; they can stay with their parents&amp;quot; (It&amp;#x27;s worth noting that this may be the case in Nepal, but in other countries the child brides live with their husbands and are treated as domestic help or slaves). Dhakal continues: &amp;quot;However, after a few years, there is the second stage, called Gauna. It is at this stage that they have to leave their home and go to live in the husband&amp;#x27;s house. Generally they are 10 to 11 years old at the stage of Gauna. It is all organized by the parents, without any awareness of the child. The children are in school but, after marriage, the girls stop going to school, especially after Gauna.&amp;quot; Why Do Parents Send Their Daughters Into Child Marriage? &amp;quot;In Nepal, parents want to marry away their girls before puberty and menstruation,&amp;quot; says Dakhal. &amp;quot;Parents think that, by marrying them, their daughters will be secure and that they have fulfilled their responsibility.&amp;quot; What Does This Say About How Girls Are Perceived by Their Families? &amp;quot;Parents think that when they marry [away] their daughters, they will reduce their financial problems. They don&amp;#x27;t want to invest in their daughters because they don&amp;#x27;t see the daughters as a member of their family,&amp;quot; says Dhakal. &amp;quot;If they valued girls, there would be lots of opportunities and potential for girls. But here [in Nepal], the only place for the girl is in the home, and they are not secure or valued there. How can we expect communities and leaders to invest in and value them if their families won&amp;#x27;t? Additionally, the younger the girl, the less expensive is the dowry the family is expected to pay. Therefore a family is incentivized to marry their daughter off as young as possible. When the girl is around 12, the parents start to be worried about marriage. They think menstruation is the right age because they assume she must be ready to have children.&amp;quot; How Can We Help? For starters, go to my.care.org to send a letter to your representative and senators asking them to co-sponsor the International Violence Against Women Act&amp;amp;mdash;it takes less than a minute. You can also sign CARE&amp;#x27;s petitions to put a stop to violence against women and demand an education for girls. Another way to help: Make a donation to support CARE&amp;#x27;s efforts. Want to learn more about the crisis of child marriage? Watch this video about child brides in Bangladesh and Nepal and the work Tipping Point is doing to influence change. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/inspired/blogs/the-conversation/2014/07/the-one-strategy-that-might-fi>