More School, Less Early Marriage for Afghan Girls

A microproject by Sahar Education
Play Video
More School, Less Early Marriage for Afghan Girls
More School, Less Early Marriage for Afghan Girls
More School, Less Early Marriage for Afghan Girls
More School, Less Early Marriage for Afghan Girls
More School, Less Early Marriage for Afghan Girls

Project Report | Oct 13, 2017
More School, Less Early Marriage for Afghan Girls

By Ginna Brelsford | Executive Director

 

Thank you for your contribution to ending early marriage for girls in Afghanistan. You are enabling young Afghan girls to go through Sahar's Early Marriage Prevention Program - to learn their rights and to stay in school longer. 

Early marriage, especially when it leads to cutting girls’ education short leads to serious consequences.

Freshta, one of the female Afghan teacher liaisons who co-developed the curriculum and runs the program, shared thoughts at a recent graduation event for students who had completed the program: "I am so happy to be here and help you to increase your knowledge about leadership and especially to encourage you in the prevention of early marriage. We will not accept to get married under the legal age and we will fight against this problem together. Our victory is in our unity on this matter. I want all of you girls, to carry this message to your family, friends and other classmates. Teach them all of the things that you learn in this course. It's your responsibility."

According to recent data from the UN Population Fund, nearly 57 percent of girls in Afghanistan are married before the legal age of 16. Our schools in Balkh Province serve a mixture of cultural groups who all participate in the customs of early marriage for various reasons: bringing money into poverty-stricken families, bride exchange, child engagement and “honor” situations. All of these practices contribute to girls dropping out before finishing secondary school.

This problem directly affects millions of girls in a country with one of the youngest populations in the world: 63 percent of Afghanistan’s population is under age 24. Girls face greater risks than boys of failure to continue their educations through secondary school. Girls’ schools continue to be targeted by violent extremists and there continues to be a stigma against girls’ education. A significant dropoff in girl students is at the age of 12 or 13, when many girls begin to be forced into early marriage and their husbands or parents encourage them to drop out of school. Our Early Marriage Prevention Initiative is built to address this issue. We have 12 modules currently and we are working on the 13th one, which will focus on Mental Health. During the Early Marriage Prevention program, the girls learn about their rights as humans and hear from guest speakers, such as the first female taxi driver, university professors, journalists, and doctors.

Thank you for your support to end early marriage for girls in Afghanistan. Your contribution helps improve the lives of thousands. 
Share on Twitter Share on Facebook

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.

Sign up for updates

Organization Information

Sahar Education

Location: Seattle, WA - USA
Website:
Facebook: Facebook Page
Twitter: @SaharEducation
Project Leader:
Ginna Brelsford
Seattle , WA United States

Funded Project!

Combined with other sources of funding, this project raised enough money to fund the outlined activities and is no longer accepting donations.
   

Still want to help?

Support another project run by Sahar Education that needs your help, such as:

Find a Project

Learn more about GlobalGiving

Teenage Science Students
Vetting +
Due Diligence

Snorkeler
Our
Impact

Woman Holding a Gift Card
Give
Gift Cards

Young Girl with a Bicycle
GlobalGiving
Guarantee

Get incredible stories, promotions, and matching offers in your inbox

WARNING: Javascript is currently disabled or is not available in your browser. GlobalGiving makes extensive use of Javascript and will not function properly with Javascript disabled. Please enable Javascript and refresh this page.