Youth Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Rights
News from Ford
28 October 2011Child Marriage Issue Discussed Prominently in USA Today
This weekend, “Investing in Women and Girls,” (PDF, 8 MB) a special supplement in USA Today, draws attention to child marriage, an urgent human rights issue affecting millions of adolescent girls around the world. The 20-page advertorial will reach more than 3 million readers.
“Women’s rights start with protecting girls,” Ford Foundation President Luis Ubiñas said in the supplement published today. “It’s a very human issue, one at the center of a wide range of challenges girls and women still face. We don’t think we can work on reproductive health, women’s rights, girls’ education, or women’s economic empowerment without addressing a widespread and fundamental issue like this one.”
Child marriage, a harmful traditional practice, affects the lives of 10 million girls in dozens of countries around the world every year.
The Ford Foundation recently announced it would help lead a unique global partnership known as Girls Not Brides to address child marriage. Foundations, governments, international agencies, and NGOs working on the frontlines are joinging forces to bring greater international focus to the issue. These groups came together to create the supplement published in USA Today.
“I believe firmly that if we work together, like apartheid, slavery and foot-binding, we can end child marriage in one generation,” Archbishop Desmond Tutu, chair of the Elders.
More Information
- View the special supplement (PDF, 8 MB)
- Read the press release about the advertorial
- Visit the Girls Not Brides website
- Watch the video on child marriage created by Girls Not Brides
- Read the press release about the Girls Not Brides partnership
- Watch the Clinton Global Initiative press conference announcing Girls Not Brides
- Get more information on The Elders and the NoVo Foundation websites
- Explore Ford’s Youth Sexuality, Reproductive Health, and Rights initiative
Media Contacts
Press Line
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- (+1) 212-573-5128
- Fax
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- pressline@fordfoundation.org
Joshua Cinelli
- Media Relations Chief
- j.cinelli@fordfoundation.org
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