Read here about the National Children and Youth Summit held 2 weeks ago in Sierra Leone. Nearly 200 people, including children, youth with and without disabilities, teachers, policy makers, and civil society from across the country gathered in Freetown to collectively discuss ways to improve the education sector, increase access for girls and end child […]
This story starts in the summer of 2017, in 2 villages in the Terai region of Nepal – close to the Indian border – where child marriage is still highly practiced. Despite 20 being the legal age for marriage in Nepal, 41% of girls are married before they are 18, and 29% by the time […]
“Daughters are considered a burden, and the sooner you get rid of the burden, the better. This mindset is the most important reason for child marriages in our communities. Mine was no exception.” This is how Beena starts her story. “I was only 14 years old when my parents decided to arrange my marriage. Luckily […]
Ever wondered how the impact of the HER CHOICE programme will be measured? The answer is: with the help of our partner Institute of Social Science Research (AISSR), University of Amsterdam! After the baseline study – whose results we published in September 2017 – at the AISSR they are now working hard on the preparations […]
My name is Tièmkèta Sawadogo, I am 62 years old. I live the village of Kilou, in the Tikaré municipality – in Burkina Faso. This year, I took part in the HER CHOICE community meetings with the village chief, the catechist, the Imam and the chief of the town, assisted by social workers, staff of […]
The HER CHOICE Alliance is happy to congratulate Soumana Coulibaly – HER CHOICE coordinator in Mali and National Director of Enda Mali – for being awarded the Malian national honor, the Silver Star of National Merit, during a ceremony held in Bamako at the end of February 2018. Soumana has been chosen for this award […]
Blog by Steve Smith of ICDI Along a dusty narrow road, bustling with mopeds and small transport buses overflowing with commuters, you will find the local Health Centre situated high on the slopes of the Western District in Freetown. It is there that we meet our local partner in the HER CHOICE Programme – One […]
In the schools involved in the HER CHOICE programme, girls’ sexual and reproductive health (SHR) issues were not addressed before the project started. Girls tried to secretly face those type of issues all alone. For instance, during the menstrual cycle, they tried to manage it individually and struggle to attend classes, or out of frustration […]
ICDI’s Steven Smith and Mathijs Euwema are in Sierra Leone this week to visit our HER CHOICE partner One Family People. HER CHOICE aims to build child marriage-free communities in eleven countries. Besides programme management and monitoring, Steven and Mathijs will visit a health center which provides SRHR training (Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights) for health and community workers. Purpose of this visit is to meet […]
Staff members of The Hunger Project in Bangladesh found a very creative way of presenting the data from the baseline study about child marriage. To present the study findings to the community, they organized a presentation in an open place. The presentation slides were printed and hanged in front of in front of the community […]
