Help Us End Child Marriage - The Hunger Project UK

Help us end child marriage

Give the gift of hope to girls in need!

What we do
Girls who live in rural areas, come from low-income families or have little to no education run a higher risk or becoming child brides. Child marriage can negatively affect a girl’s development by leading to early pregnancy, social isolation, interrupting schooling, limiting career advancement opportunities and increasing the risk of domestic violence. We partner with volunteers or “animators” who run awareness campaigns to put an end to violence against girls and discriminatory practices like child marriage, dowry and female genital mutilation.

Women's low status affects a number of areas negatively, for example more early marriages, increased violence against women, higher child mortality and higher maternal mortality. Studies show that when women are supported and empowered, all of society benefits. Their families are healthier, more children go to school, agricultural productivity improves and incomes increase. In short, communities become more resilient. Thats why gender is the foundational theme for our entire strategy.

The Hunger Project trains women to become decision makers, to take their place among society's strongest leaders and to become entrepreneurs on equal terms. Over 500,000 women have attended leadership training with us.

One of our main priorities is to secure women's political, economic and social participation. When people have the knowledge and strength to exercise their rights, they can lift themselves out of poverty and hunger.

Not all girls are able to access an advocate through networks like Her Choice. And, instead of realising the full potential of their lives through education, they enter a cycle of generational hunger. When they are young, these girls are perceived as less valuable and are fed last and least. These chronically malnourished girls are then denied opportunity to an education or agency over their own bodies and are forced to marry young. Most then give birth long before their bodies have fully developed. Their children, in turn, are stunted by the malnourishment of their young mothers. And, if they are girl babies, they are fed last and least. In this way, the cycle of hunger continues and worsens.

To break this cycle, programs like Her Choice, a coalition of organisations including The Hunger Project, change mindsets and dismantle the systems that perpetuate hunger. To break this cycle, we must invest in girls.

To find out more, visit our website - https://thehungerproject.org.uk/