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Press Release

February 6, 2008

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Experts at Hopkins Panel Laud PBS Program on Early Marriage, Point to New Solutions

"Child Marriage is our tradition, our culture, and it's wrong."

    - Nigerian Tribal Leader interviewed by television journalist Maria Hinojosa.
 

Mamta, one of the girls featured in Child Brides: Stolen lives, courtesy of NOW on PBS


Baltimore, MD - The story of child brides has been untold," panelists at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health said in a discussion of the practice of child marriage, after viewing a preview of the NOW on PBS program Child Brides: Stolen Lives on January 29, 2008. Convened by the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the Center for Communication Programs (CCP) to discuss issues depicted in the one-hour documentary, panelists pointed to the devastating impact the traditional practice has on girls, families, communities, and nations.

Filmed in India, Niger and Guatemala, Child Brides captures, in senior correspondent Maria Hinojosa's words, “the quiet desperation of girls whose lives have already reached a turning point.” 

 "The issue of child marriage gets glossed over," said Hinojosa, at the Hopkins panel. "We hear about girls when they're sex slaves, child labor workers," she said. "When you hear about child marriage you think, oh, it's not that bad," she said, "but this practice sets them off for life impoverished, disempowered, and at risk for all these health issues," Hinojosa said, referring to a roster of staggering consequences related by fellow panelist Dr. Michelle Hindin, associate professor in Hopkins's Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health.

 
"Girls younger than 15 who become pregnant are five times more likely to die in childbirth than women in their twenties," said Dr. Hindin, after being introduced by panel moderator and that department's head, Dr. Robert Blum. Over the next ten years, she said, it's estimated that 100 million girls will be married before age 18. Child marriage is most common in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, where girls are 2-6 times more likely to contract HIV, for biological and social reasons, than boys of the same age.
 
Praising the NOW on PBS program's balanced, contextual approach to reporting on the culturally and politically sensitive issue, panelists told stories about their programs' related work on the ground. 

(left to right) Panelists Kathleen Selvaggio, Gannon Gillespie and Dr. Wendy Baldwin
"You have to create practical alternatives [to child marriage]," said Dr. Wendy Baldwin, director of Poverty, Gender and Youth at the Population Council. "If going to school after puberty is dangerous, how do you make schools safe?"
 
Gannon Gillespie, director of US operations for the Senegal-based NGO Tostan, recalled a story about a community's efforts to prevent the forced marriage of a 14-year-old girl, which had been arranged by her father, who had gone to work in Gabon. Protesting locals marched to her proposed groom's house and convinced village leaders not to perform the ceremony.
 
"The community management group called her father," said Gillespie, "and said, this is nothing against you, but when you were gone we decided this is something we don't do anymore."
 
Kathleen Selvaggio, Senior Policy Advocate at ICRW, urged the audience of some 200 people, including local specialists from the Catholic Relief Services, International Youth Foundation, and Lutheran World Relief, to support pending legislation in the United States Congress, Representative Betty McCollum's International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act of 2007 (HR 3175), and the International Child Marriage Prevention and Protection Act (S 1998), introduced by Senators Richard Durbin and Chuck Hagel.
 
"We should integrate efforts to reduce child marriage into existing programs [by USAID] to promote girls’ education, and reduce child mortality and maternal mortality, since child marriage is a major obstacle to achieving both these goals," said Selvaggio.
 
Dr. Baldwin offered a closing thought from the Emir of Gobir, a tribal king in Niger who has become a strong advocate for girls. "He said, Child marriage is our tradition, it is our culture, and it's wrong."
 
"With leadership on the ground, things can change," said Dr. Baldwin.
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 About the Center for Communication Programs at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

With representatives in more than 30 countries, CCP partners with organizations worldwide to design and implement strategic communication programs that influence political dialogue, collective action, and individual behavior change; enhance access to information and the exchange of knowledge to improve health and health care; and conduct research to guide program design, evaluate impact, and advance knowledge and practice in health communication. 

About the NOW on PBS special hour-long program, Child Brides, Stolen Lives

 Funded with support by the Nike Foundation and the UN Foundation, the program premiered on PBS in October of 2007. The entire program is available for online viewing and download at www.pbs.org/now.


For more information, contact Rose Reis, rreis@jhuccp.org.

Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Government or The Johns Hopkins University.