Child Brides

http://fstoppers.com/powerful-photos-of-child-brides

These are just some pictures of child brides. Photographer Stephanie Sinclair took many pictures on her many trips to more than 40 countries around the world. Each of these countries either has no law, or ignores the law, and allows child marriage.

Sinclair is one of the most honored photojournalists today. She documented an 11 year olds wedding day in the outskirts of Gondar, Ethiopia, in 2008 as a part of her project on child marriage. Sinclair returned to Gondar in 2012 to check up on the now 15 year old mother.

Sinclair has spent nearly a decade investigating child marriage in India, Yemen, Afghanistan, Nepal and Ethiopia. Today, the United Nations Population Fund and Sinclair are celebrating the first ever International Day of the Girl Child with the launch of Too Young to Wed, a campaign against child marriage with a multimedia site featuring Sinclair and other documentarians’ works.

In 2010, about 67 million women 20 to 24 years old, had been married before they were 18, according to the Population Fund. Child marriage is found in all regions of the world but is most common in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Ethiopia has particularly high rates of child marriage: 41% of Ethiopian women between 20 and 24 were married underage.

It is most likely that a young mother will end up having approximately six risky pregnancies and live births because of the high infant mortality rate, according to a Population Fund representative. Complications from pregnancy and childbirth are the greatest cause of death and disability among girls 15 to 19. Ethiopian people are exposed to the global community and have aid programs to prevent child marriage.

““Even though I’ve been working on this for a decade, I feel like there’s much more to do,” Sinclair said. “I believe every girl deserves a childhood.””



http://cnnphotos.blogs.cnn.com/2012/10/11/trading-childhood-for-marriage/?hpt=wo_t3