This project will be an essential step in helping to end child marriage in the rural district of Sinazongwe in Zambia, 1 of the top 15 hotspots for child marriage in the world. We intend to run workshops that will reach 500 boys and men who are relatives of girls participating on our Own your Destiny Girls' Football League. Workshops will include training on how become a community advocate for girls' education, as well as teaching about important Government policies that support girls' rights.
In Zambia 29% of girls currently marry before their 18th birthday and 5% are married before the age of 15. UNICEF estimates that there are currently 1.7 million child brides, a large majority of which live in rural areas of the country like Sinazongwe District. Child brides are robbed of their childhood and put at high risk of maternal death, violence, abuse and exploitation. The causes of child marriage are deep-rooted in cultural traditions, gender inequality and often poverty.
In 2021 we launched our "Own your Destiny" girls' football league. The project incorporates entrepreneurship training and saving groups, literacy and numeracy catch-up lessons and teaching sexual reproductive health education through football drills to return 750 girls that have dropped out of school back into the education system. However, one of the biggest challenges facing the project is resistance from men who have not allowed their wives and daughters to return to school.
We were asked by the girls participating on this project to include a series of workshops for boys and men that will create opportunities for them to become advocates for girls' education. We have seen in previous projects that our workshops can educate men on the long-term positive impacts of girls finishing school including higher household income and better maternal and child health. In comparison, there are many negative impacts when child marriage occurs, that affects the whole family.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
