PERSPECTIVE: a fair chance for girls – end child marriage By angélique Kidjo, award-winning artist and UniCef Goodwill ambassador Child marriage exemplifies how the world’s poorest act like children, but instead were forced to be grown- girls bear the heaviest burden of disadvantage, ups. i noticed they carried a sense of shame, a sharp especially those living in marginalized communities awareness that they were different from the rest of us. in rural areas of sub-Saharan africa and South asia, where the practice is most common. While there has been progress in reducing child marriage, it is uneven. Girls from the poorest Girls who are married have their childhoods stolen households – and those living in rural areas – face from them. i’ve seen this, and how it hurts them. twice the risk of being married before turning 18 as girls from the richest households or those living in When i was growing up in Cotonou, Benin, several of urban areas. my girlfriends from primary school were married at a very young age. Some i never even saw again – their With no progress, almost 950 million women will have married lives took them far away. others i met up been married as children by 2030, up from more than with later on, but they weren’t the same. Their joy and 700 million today. and by 2050, almost half of the enthusiasm were gone. They were no longer free to world’s child brides will be african. The STaTe of The World’S Children 2016 38