Change Within One Generation - It's Possible

"We are fooling ourselves if we think we can improve the lives of the worlds poorest people without talking about the harmful traditional practices that affect millions of girls and women."  

Gro Brundtland and Graca Machel, The Elders 

There has been a lot of talk going on in advance of the G8 Summit being held May 19-20 at Camp David, just outside Washington.The Summit - which includes the heads of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Canada, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States - will meet to focus on issues of global importance. What should be on the agenda? While so many very important issues could be discussed, there is one that has the potential to positively impact enormous change for so many people within a generation - including TEMBO sponsored girls and women. Will it come up? Sadly, probably not.

Primary schools throughout Tanzania are preparing to graduate students from Standard Seven in a few months. This is the time when students who pass the Standard Seven Leaving Exam become eligible for secondary school, the next important stage in their lives. Many students will be lucky enough to continue their education. For many other very young girls leaving Standard Seven, the next stage in their lives will be very very different. They will be getting married to older men and begin bearing children. These are not abstractions, they are little girls who have names like Neema, Upendo, or Loveness. If I close my eyes I can see their faces. Many will have been in Mary's Sara Juma class when they were in Standard Six. If you ever travelled to Longido or Kimokouwa you will have met some of these girls.

It's not just people like us who are horrified by the thought of mere children becoming wives and mothers. People like Archbishop Desmond Tutu and members of The Elders are among Africans who feel the same way. Archbishop Tutu says he feels as strongly about addressing the issue of child marriages as he felt about abolishing apartheid.

Mary Robinson, one of The Elders and the former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, was recently interviewed by Michael Enright of CBC News. In the May 6, 2012 broadcast she says The Elders chose to focus on child brides because it underscores the sense that girls are inferior and second class citizens in the world.  A girl is a commodity worth money that is paid in the form of a dowry. The reality is that the older the girl, the more expensive the dowry. So there is a great incentive for a father to arrange an early marriage so the dowry will not be so high. This year 10 million girls will become child brides and child mothers.

  It occurs to me in a very disturbing way that, if I had been born in many places in Africa, I would have been considered a liability to my father - a thing to be off-loaded as quickly as possible. Those of you in developed countries who are reading this, look at your daughters who are finishing primary school. The same would be true of them. Instead, you are doing everything you possibly can to ensure your daughters have every opportunity to achieve their dreams. In Tanzania - in Longido and Kimokouwa - the dreams of so many girls will not be realized for yet another year. Instead, what they are almost certain to experience now and throughout their lives is poverty, poor health, and inequality. It doesn't have to be this way and it shouldn't be this way.

"The world is now blessed with the biggest generation of girls in history. By ending child marriage, we can empower these girls to fulfil their potential and help to transform communities on an unprecedented scale. We have to start by talking about it."

Gro Bruntland and Graca Machel, The Elders

I hope you will read the informative short article, End Child Marriages Now written by Gro Bruntland, the first female Prime Minister of Norway, and Graca Machel, a former minister of Mozambique. I wish the G8 members would read it, too, then put the very harmful practice of child marriages on the agenda of their next Summit meeting.

For now, I applaud the wise parents -  in Longido, Kimokouwa, and throughout Africa - who are leaving the harmful cultural practice of child marriages in the dust bin of history where it belongs. They are the real change-makers. And I applaud those of you throughout the world choosing to work with organizations like TEMBO to provide secondary school education sponsorship and vocational training sponsorship. You are giving girls just like your daughters an opportunity to achieve their dreams, too. Could there be anything better than this?