USAID Supports Efforts to End Child Marriage in Ethiopia
USAID (press release), DC - October 12, 2007
The American people, through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), awarded CARE, an international non-governmental organization, more than $1.3 million to implement a three-year program in Ethiopia focused on ending child marriage in the country. The program is specifically designed to educate and encourage change within communities regarding the harmful traditional practices of bride abduction, bride price and early marriage. The Healthy Unions program will be carried out in the Oromiya Region of the country, where 80 percent of the marriages result from bride abduction.
Bride abduction is a traditional practice in which a girl, sometimes as young as 10 years old, is kidnapped by a group of young men and then raped by the man who wants to marry her. After the rape, community leaders from the man's village ask the girl's family to accept the marriage. Since the loss of a girl's virginity significantly damages her ability to marry in the view of the community, the family often agrees. The resulting early marriage has devastating effects on the young girl, including an end to her education and exposure to serious health risks such as HIV/AIDS and potentially deadly complications from early pregnancy. Even young girls who are able to avoid bride abduction are significantly affected by the practice, since the fear of bride abduction prompts many parents to withdraw their daughters from school after they reach 10 or 11 years old, ending any hopes of continued education ...