VOW for Girls uses weddings to fight child marriage globally

Nonprofits battling child marriage are looking for more support during the COVID-19 pandemic and have found some help from an unexpected source – the $100 billion wedding industry

Hope Nankunda is fighting to keep young Ugandan girls in school and away from marriages until after they turn 18.

It's a calling that began for Nankunda as a teacher, when she found herself spending more time counseling her students than engaging in classroom instruction.

“They share about the challenges in their communities, in their homes, and most of these challenges have a lot to do with sexual abuse, with being forced into marriage in exchange for food, especially in the lockdown,” said Nankunda, the founder and executive director of Raising Teenagers Uganda as well as a coordinator for Girls Not Brides Uganda. “They also have a lot to do with the increased cases of teenage pregnancy.”

Though Nankunda and her nonprofits achieved some goals, including Uganda's passage of a law prohibiting marriages of anyone under 18, COVID-19 dealt her crusade some setbacks. Experts estimate that during the pandemic, an additional 13 million child brides worldwide may marry in the next decade in addition to the typical annual rate of 12 million.