Too Young to Wed

Too Young to Weds (TYTW) mission is to empower girls and end child marriage globally. TYTW operates a continuum of evidence-based programs and services that form a holistic wellbeing and empowerment model for girls at high risk for, or who have survived, child marriage. Emergency protective services aid girls with safe housing, counseling, legal and medical services as they safely exit forced marriages. Therapeutic workshops, survivor-led mentoring, and leadership development programs empower girls to reclaim their bodies and narratives as they heal from trauma. Educational, vocational, and recreational programs equip girls with lifelong tools for independence, while preventing them from entering or returning to child marriages. Community and family sensitization, reunification, reconciliation, and advocacy programs mobilize girls to become change agents who transform their own communities. TYTW educated and provided direct support services to more than 32,000 individuals through its 2023 programs in seven countries (Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Nigeria, Kenya, and the U.S.) and educated millions more globally through its grassroots, local and regional advocacy events and girl-centered, world-class multimedia storytelling. Throughout 2023, Afghanistans de facto government continued its campaign against women and girls. Following the 2022 ban on girls attending school beyond grade six, the Taliban issued an additional 70 edicts in 2023, further restricting the autonomy and daily lives of millions of Afghan women and girls. In 2023, TYTW directly served at least 25,000 people in Afghanistan, focusing on especially vulnerable groups such as widow-headed families. TYTW provided leadership development and vocational training in areas such as livestock provision, tailoring, pickling, embroidery, handicrafts, shopkeeping, and food vending. Roughly 2,500 secondary-age girls, who had been banned from attending school, participated in alternative education programs facilitated by TYTW, which employed female teachers who had lost their livelihoods due to the educational restrictions. Named in honor of nine-year-old Parwana Malik, who was sold into marriage to a 55-year-old man in late 2021 and later freed by TYTW, the Parwana Food Security & Livelihoods Program addressed urgent food and economic security needs for vulnerable Afghan families across multiple provinces. The initiative supported hundreds of families with case management and family sensitization on child marriage, negotiated with authorities and faith-based leaders to safeguard girls, distributed food to alleviate immediate hardship, and supplied families with start-up capital and livelihoods training. This comprehensive support empowered families to avoid desperate survival measures, protecting thousands of girls from violence, and promoting greater economic stability in their homes. In addition to the worsening economic crisis, Afghanistan was hit by several devastating earthquakes (the first being 6.3 magnitude, with succeeding quakes of similar magnitude) in 2023, which killed thousands of people, 90% of whom were women and children. TYTWs team provided immediate emergency assistance to 1,000 families affected by the earthquake, distributing food, blankets, and medical aid. The team also supported ongoing recovery needs, including case management, healthcare, education, and livelihood recovery. In Pakistan, the refugee crisis continues to worsen. According to UNHCR, four out of five of the 600,000 newly-arrived Afghan refugees in Pakistan are women and children (InfoMigrants). TYTW has focused on supporting vulnerable Afghan families in Pakistan in 2023, partnering with local organizations in Peshawar and Islamabad, to address the urgent needs of displaced Afghan girls in the aftermath of the turmoil in Afghanistan. In Peshawar, a collaborative education and livelihoods program worked to combat child marriage and advocate for girls rights by providing education, awareness initiatives, vocational training, legal assistance, and support for refugee girls and their families. Similarly, in Islamabad, a partnership program supported vulnerable Afghan girls with enrollment in community schools, raised awareness about child marriage, provided essential food supplies, offered vocational training for families, and extended legal support to refugees. In total, TYTW directly supported more than 600 direct beneficiaries in 2023. KenyaIn 2023, residents of Samburu County, a remote pastoral region in northern Kenya, faced a historic drought and worsening food insecurity, which contributed to rising rates of child marriage and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM). The drought affected 2.8 million people, leading to increased dependence on humanitarian aid due to widespread livelihood loss, malnutrition, and health issues like cholera. Since 2014, TYTW has worked in Kenya to protect girls, supporting vulnerable girls through crisis services, leadership workshops and scholarships, accelerated education, and public awareness campaigns that amplified survivor voices. The Butterfly Project aims to educate and empower girls, reducing gender disparities in comunities with high rates of teen pregnancy, FGM and child marriage in Samburu County. In 2023, TYTW provided local school scholarships, literacy classes, curriculum-based mentoring, community dialogues, livestock and nutrition provisions. Using the Population Councils GIRL Center curriculum, TYTW offered life skills and reproductive health education through engaging activities. In total, TYTWs local team reached more than 4,000 direct beneficiaries in Kenya in 2023. IndiaIn Rajasthan, India, TYTW partnered with the Centre for Unfolding Learning Potential (CULP) to provide educational opportunities for out-of-school girls through the ASPIRE Program. This initiative established six Learning Centers, offering 150 girls from marginalized communities an eight-month intensive program to prepare them for mainstream secondary school and protect them from child marriage. Additionally, vocational training for 50 young women helped build employability skills, while life skills sessions empowered participants to make informed decisions and adopt healthier hygiene practices.

NepalUNICEF reports that child marriage has impacted 5 million adolescents in Nepal, placing the country among those with the highest rates of child marriage in Asia. TYTW protects high-risk children in Nepal through its leadership scholarship program. In addition to school supplies, books, uniforms, and school transportation, TYTW has provided thousands of days of schooling to 25 children who might otherwise be forced to marry. Scholarships and FellowshipsSince December 2020, TYTWs Emerging Photographers Fellowship supports emerging local photojournalists in countries and areas of deep gender disparity globally, whose original reporting covers the issue of child marriage and marginalized girls. Through seed funding, granting of top-tier professional photography equipment and mentorship from respected industry leaders, this highly selective program invests in a new generation of visual storytellers, empowering each grantee to hone their craft, nurture their prolificacy, and advance the global body of original documentation and thought leadership on ending the practice of child marriage. In 2023, TYTW awarded the Emerging Photographers Fellowship to the Young Lionesses, an ambitious photography collective of child marriage survivors in Samburu County, Kenya. TYTW supported a small cohort of Boko Haram abduction survivors in Nigeria through its Leadership Scholarships program as well. In the U.S., TYTW honored Bibi Aisha with our Girls Champion Award for her continued advocacy. The award included scholarship funds to support her pursuit of a high school equivalency diploma. Bibi Aisha first gained international attention in 2010 when she appeared on TIME magazines cover, her mutilated face symbolizing the brutal gender-based violence faced by Afghan women under the Taliban.Media AdvocacyIn 2023, TYTW reached millions worldwide, shedding light on the devastating effects of child marriage through evocative, girl-centered multimedia storytelling and original reporting. The organizations deeply moving multimedia exhibition, Girls on the Brink: Holding on to Fragile Futures, was featured at the International Peace Conference in Birmingham, Alabama, engaging several hundred attendees, including global thought leaders from academia, government, public safety, religion, business, and community service. TYTW also collaborated with Photoville, New Yorks renowned photography event showcasing work by celebrated photographers, to exhibit Broken Promises: Navigating a World Under Taliban Rule. This powerful two-week exhibition drew over 1,000,000 visitors, including 800 students and educators. In March 2023, TYTWs message reached further into the public eye when Stephanie Sinclairs evocative photographs of high-profile survivor Bibi Aisha was once again featured in TIME magazine, accompanying an in-person interview and guest editorial by Academy Award-winning actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie. TYTWs storytelling in 2023 appeared in numerous globally-recognized media outlets including CNN, The New York Times, The Star, and TIME.