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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test?
This article has lots of good facts and information supporting our topic. They present the information through facts, statistics and personal stories, testimonies and pictures. They draw you in the article in the beginning with a picture of a victim and a story of one girl’s struggles. Then they lead into the hard facts and informations showing how real the problem is and has become. “African leadership is essential for harnessing this attention to effectively prevent and eliminate child marriage.” and also “Countries lose out on potentially enormous social, economic, and political contributions these girls could make if given the right opportunities from the start.”  These two statements are some the the barley bias statements in this article. It contains a lot of good information.

Ending Child Marriage in Africa

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? Dec 9,2015

Has the information been revised or updated? yes

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? current

Are the links functional? yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor?  Annerieke Smaak and Nisha Varia

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they? No

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? Annerieke Smaak is a Senior Coordinator in the Women's Rights Division. Before joining Human Rights Watch, she worked for Teach for America in Philadelphia. Annerieke holds a bachelor's degree in international politics from Georgetown University and a master's degree in international affairs.Nisha Varia is the advocacy director of Human Rights Watch's women's rights division. As a researcher in the women's rights division between 2003 and 2014, she conducted investigations, published reports, and carried out advocacy campaigns on migrant domestic workers' rights across Asia and the Middle East.

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? no

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? .org

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? all the sources at the bottom

Is the information supported by evidence? yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? yes

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? yes

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? yes

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? no

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade? To inform teach or educate and persuade you to agree.

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? fact

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? yes mabye a little bias

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?Perconal bias believing it’s not true or right.

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I faced a lot of problems in marriage. I was young and did not know how to be a wife. I was pregnant, had to look after my husband, do housework, deal with in-laws, and work on the farm. My worst time was when I was pregnant; I had to do all this and deal with a pregnancy while I was just a child myself.[1]

-Elina V., 19, married a 24-year-old man when she was 15, Mangochi district, Malawi, September 2013

We have a crisis on our hands. The UN estimates that 15 million girls experience child marriage each year.... We must move from vulnerability to voice and leadership. Africa is young and full of innovation. This energy must be harnessed to ensure that we have lasting solutions. [2]

-Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, African Union Goodwill ambassador on Ending Child Marriage in Africa, national launch of the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage in Africa, July 31, 2015

In September 2015, leaders from Africa joined other governments from around the world in adopting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including a target to end child marriage in the next 15 years.

In sub-Saharan Africa, a staggering 40 percent of girls marry before age 18, and African countries account for 15 of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage. [3] For example, 77 percent of girls in Niger,[4] and over 60 percent of girls in Central African Republic and Chad, marry before they turn 18.[5] Without progress to prevent child marriage, the number of girls married as children will double by 2050, and Africa will surpass South Asia as the region with the highest number of child brides in the world.

Girls who marry young are often denied a range of human rights: many must discontinue their education, face serious health risks from early and multiple pregnancies, and suffer sexual and domestic violence. Agenda 2063, the African Union's 50-year action plan for development, recognizes that child marriage is a major impediment to regional development and prosperity. Countries lose out on potentially enormous social, economic, and political contributions these girls could make if given the right opportunities from the start.

At present, unprecedented attention is being paid to child marriage globally, including public commitments by heads of states to fight child marriage in their countries, as well as the support of international donors, UN agencies, and civil society groups.

African leadership is essential for harnessing this attention to effectively prevent and eliminate child marriage. Promising initiatives include the launch in Ethiopia on May 29, 2014 of a continent-wide campaign to end child marriage, and the appointments in Ethiopia of a new AU special rapporteur on child marriage, and of a Goodwill ambassador for the AU Campaign to End Child Marriage.

Most importantly, there must be concrete changes nationally and locally. There is no single solution for ending child marriage. Rather, to achieve this goal, African governments should commit to comprehensive change that includes a range of measures, including ensuring legal reform and enforcement, access to quality education, and sexual and reproductive health information and services; promoting girls' empowerment; and changing harmful social norms.

Evidence for what drives child marriage is growing. Despite diversity across regions and communities, many common threads lead to child marriage and its harmful consequences. Human Rights Watch research in Malawi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Yemen has found that intersections between gender discrimination and poverty; poor access to education and health services; customary practices; religious beliefs; and weak justice mechanisms fuel the practice.

Poverty

Pontinanta J. from South Sudan has nine siblings and neither of her parents is employed. She told Human Rights Watch that she was married in 2006 at the age of 13 because "my father did not want to pay my school fees. Sometimes we had no food at home."[6] Aguet N., married at age 15 to a 75-year-old man said, "This man went to my uncles and paid a dowry of 80 cows. I resisted the marriage. They threatened me. They said, 'If you want your siblings to be taken care of, you will marry this man.' I said he is too old for me. They said, 'You will marry this old man whether you like it or not because he has given us something to eat.'"[7]

Poverty is commonly cited by girls and family members as driving decisions to marry young. For poor families, with little money even for food and basic necessities, marrying their daughter early is an economic survival strategy: it means one less child to feed or educate. Girls themselves may see marriage as a way out of poverty. Discriminatory gender norms in many places, including traditions that mean girls go to live with their husbands' families, while boys remain with, and financially support, their parents, also contribute to perceptions that girls are economic burdens. Some families believe that giving their daughter away in marriage may give her a chance for a better life.

Gaps in Laws and Enforcement

Legal frameworks play a powerful role in transforming norms and protecting girls' rights. Relevant laws and regulations include those that set the minimum age for marriage at 18 for both girls and boys; requirements for birth and marriage registration; sexual violence and domestic violence laws; anti-corruption laws; and family status laws regulating marriage, divorce, custody, and inheritance. At least 20 African countries allow girls to marry below the age of 18 through their minimum age laws or through exceptions for parental consent or judicial approval.[8]

Although many African countries have established 18 as the minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls, weak enforcement has meant these laws have had little impact. Police may not have adequate training on dealing with these cases, do not see it as their job to prevent child marriages, or defer to the parents' wishes. And while birth and marriage registration helps prove the age of spouses at the time of marriage, they are rarely produced or verified. For example, only 16 percent of children in Tanzania under age 5 have been registered with civil authorities, and only about half of these children received a birth certificate.[9] Birth certificates are often also forged by corrupt officials who may accept bribes and knowingly facilitate child marriages.

Corruption may mean girls can find little recourse from the justice system. A police officer from the Police Gender and Children's Desk in Moshi, Tanzania, told Human Rights Watch that some of the cases taken to court for prosecution are delayed or are not completed because perpetrators pay money to the magistrates, who then postpone and adjourn cases indefinitely. The long delays eventually cause victims and witnesses to give up and stop coming to court.[10] Janet G., a child bride in Tanzania, said, "I want to report my husband's abuse to the police but I do not have money to pay them to help me."[11]

Also, many African countries have multiple legal systems where civil, customary, and religious laws overlap and generally contradict one another. Community or religious leaders who align child marriage with customary practices and religious beliefs may also resist laws and their enforcement.

Customary Practices and Religious Beliefs

Traditional beliefs about gender roles and sexuality and women and girls' subordination undergird many customary practices, such as payment of dowry or bride price, which perpetuate child marriage. In a context of limited economic resources and opportunities, girls are often seen as economic assets whose marriages provide cattle, other animals, money, and gifts.

For example, dowry payment is a key driver of child marriage in South Sudan, where families see their daughters as sources of wealth. A marriage is sealed after a man and his family negotiates and pays a dowry to a woman's family in the form of cattle, other animals, or, increasingly, money. Anita G., 19, told Human Rights Watch that her father forced her to leave school to get married when she was 16 and in her second year of secondary school: "My father said he did not have money to support my schooling. I then discovered that he had already received 20 cows as dowry for me. My mother tried to reason with my father to allow me continue with school, but my father said I had to marry. He said, 'Once dowry has been taken, it cannot be returned.'"[12]

Religious beliefs can also be a driver of child marriage. Amongst Zimbabwe's religious sects, particularly in the Apostolic faith where religion combines with traditional culture, girls often marry much older men at a very young age. A midwife in the Johwane Masowe Shonhiwa Apostolic faith told Human Rights Watch her church encourages child marriage: "Our church doctrine is that girls must marry when they are between 12 and 16 years old to make sure they do not sin by having sexual relations outside marriage. As soon as a girl reaches puberty any man in the church can claim her for a wife."[13] Virginity testing and polygamy is also widely practiced within the Apostolic faith religious sects. Church doctrine enforced by elders, husbands, and other family members, prohibits married girls from continuing school.

Human Rights Watch research has shown that child marriage has dire life-long consequences, often completely halting or crippling a girl's ability to realize a wide range of human rights.

Child marriage directly violates rights to health, education, equality and non-discrimination, consensual marriage, employment, and to live free from violence and discrimination, which are enshrined in international human rights standards and institutions, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC).

Child marriage also violates the rights of women and girls that are enshrined in regional treaties. These include the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the Maputo Protocol), which calls on governments to "enact appropriate national legislative measures to guarantee that: the minimum age of marriage for women shall be 18 years"; and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (the African Charter), which calls on states to "ensure the elimination of every discrimination against women and also ensure the protection of the rights of women and the child as stipulated in international declarations and conventions."[14]

Maternal Mortality and Other Health Risks

I got complications during delivery. I was unable to push and I was weak with no energy. The nurses said I was getting complications because my body was not fully developed. To pull out the baby, the nurses forced their hands inside my body and pulled the baby out. I felt so much pain that I was not able to walk for a whole month after delivery.[15]

-Aisha S., married at 17, Kahama, Tanzania, April 2014

Child marriage is closely linked to early childbearing with consequences that can be fatal. Complications resulting from pregnancy and childbirth are the second leading cause of death among adolescent girls aged 15-19 years old globally.[16] Research shows that girls aged 10-14 are five times more likely to die during delivery than mothers aged 20-24; girls aged 15-19 are still twice as likely to die during delivery as women aged 20-24.[17]

These consequences are due largely to girls' physical immaturity where the pelvis and birth canal are not fully developed. Complications in labor are exacerbated where emergency obstetric services are scarce, as is the case in many countries across the continent. In other cases, the stress of delivery in physically immature bodies can cause obstetric fistulas, a tear between a girl's vagina and rectum that results in constant leaking of urine and feces. Girls suffering this condition are often ostracized and abandoned by their families and communities.

Limited access to reproductive health information and services for both unmarried and married adolescents contributes to these harms. Many adolescents have a limited understanding of sexual intercourse, its consequences, or contraception. Adolescent pregnancy outside of marriage, or the fear that adolescent girls will get pregnant, helps fuel child marriage. Once married, girls often do not have access to information or family planning services to delay or space pregnancies.

Many girls that Human Rights Watch interviewed in South Sudan lacked basic knowledge about sexuality and contraception. Gloria C. said she got pregnant at 14 or 15. "I didn't know that I would get pregnant by having sex," she said. "I was just playing sex."[18] A problem in many countries is that many schools do not offer comprehensive sexuality education to girls and boys, or health workers do not share complete information about reproductive health with adolescents.

Halted Education

My father refused me to go to school. He said it is a waste of money to educate a girl. He said marriage will bring me respect in the community. Now I have grown up and I know that this is not true. I cannot get work to support my children and I see girls who have some education can get jobs.[19]

-Mary K., Yambio County, South Sudan, March 2012

Many girls who attend school are forced to leave due to marriage, pregnancy, or family pressure. Although school administrators and teachers should play a critical role in monitoring and encouraging married girls to remain in school, formal or informal school policies often mean that they instead stigmatize and expel them from the education system.

Others are pushed into marriage once they leave school. Poor access to quality education can also contribute to child marriage: when schools are too expensive, far, or poor quality, many families may pull their daughters out, leaving them at greater risk of marriage. Inadequate water and sanitation facilities can deter girls from attending school, especially once they begin menstruating. School fees, or even the costs of uniforms and school supplies, can put formal schooling beyond some families' reach.

A lack of education limits girls' choices and opportunities throughout their lives. The price of this exclusion is often poverty. Without education, girls and adult women have fewer opportunities to financially provide for themselves and their families. Research by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) shows how limited education may make girls and women more vulnerable to persistent poverty when their spouses die, abandon or divorce them.[20]

In South Sudan, Anyier D., 18, told Human Rights Watch that her uncles forced her to leave school at age 14 in 2008 to marry an old man she did not know. She said: "I would wish to return to school even if I have children. People think that I am happy but I am not because I don't have an education. I don't have something of my own and I am only cleaning offices. If I had gone to secondary school, I would get a good job."[21]

Sexual and Domestic Violence

I faced a lot of abuse in my marriage. My husband had an affair. He would beat me when he returned home. Whenever he was drunk, he would beat me for no reason. Every time he beat me, I would pack my clothes and go to my grandmother's house but she did not help me. When I talked to my husband's relatives, they used to tell me that that is how marriage life is and I should go back to my husband.[22]

-Chanika B., married when she was 15, Mangochi district, Malawi, September 2013

Child marriage exposes girls and young women to violence, including marital rape, sexual and domestic violence, and emotional abuse. Rose M., a mother of two, was married when she was 16. She told us: "I experienced a lot of problems in my marriage. We had no food or clothes. We washed our clothes with leaves. My husband beat me at least twice a week and he used to force me to have sex with him. Also, I was not allowed to go out of the home."[23]

While not all child marriages are marked by domestic violence, the risks increase when there are large gaps in age between a girl and her husband.[24] Many countries fail to criminalize marital rape, and even when it is a crime, child brides have little ability to seek help. Married girls and young women between the ages of 15 and 19 with low levels of education are at a much greater risk of domestic and sexual violence from their spouses than older and more educated women.[25]

A study across seven countries found that girls who married before the age of 15 were more likely to experience spousal abuse than women who married after 25.[26] Limited information about their rights, lack of access to services-especially legal assistance; discriminatory divorce, inheritance, and custody laws; and rejection from their own families-can leave many trapped in abusive marriages with no means of escape. A lack of understanding and access to information on healthy relationships, reproduction, and sexual intercourse among both boys and girls contributes to abusive relationships.

Lack of shelters is a key obstacle to effectively responding to child marriages. Many governments lack shelters or safe spaces where girls can seek protection and help when at risk of child marriage, or when they run away from them.

While the harms caused by child marriage are grim, the benefits of ending the practice are transformative and far-reaching. Tackling child marriage is a strategic way to advance women's rights and empowerment in several areas, ranging from health, education, work, freedom from violence, and participation in public life.

In order to do so, it is essential that all relevant stakeholders-including community and religious leaders; school teachers and administrators; health care workers; police, prosecutors, and the judiciary; government officials; media; parents, and of course, girls and boys-understand and commit to their role in ending child marriage.

The absence of comprehensive national strategies on child marriage and poor coordination among government ministries and agencies undermines the effectiveness of government efforts. Without clear guidelines on how authorities should handle cases of child marriage, government responses remain fragmented.

For example, in Malawi, various government entities, officially coordinated by the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development, are mandated to tackle violence against women, including child marriages. The Ministry of Justice is responsible for the prosecutors, the Ministry of Gender, Children and Community Development for child protection workers, and the Ministry of Interior for the police. However, there is little communication or formal referrals on specific cases among these entities.

Similarly, the AU has launched disparate campaigns and initiatives that address child marriage but has not coordinated them, for example, the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality (CARMMA), the African Women's Decade, and the African Youth Decade Plan of Action.

Effective solutions require coordination by multiple actors and must put girls' empowerment and voice at their center. Regional and international institutions, governments, and civil society groups should work together to ensure that the SDG target of ending child marriage by 2030 is achieved.

To the African Union

Ensure a coordinated and comprehensive approach among child marriage initiatives, including the Campaign for Accelerated Reduction of Maternal Mortality (CARMMA), the African Women's Decade, and the African Youth Decade Plan of Action.

Incorporate an indicator to monitor progress towards ending child marriage into the AU Agenda 2063.

Incorporate child marriage into the work of the African Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and the inclusion of an end to child marriage into its development strategies.

Urge governments to develop comprehensive national strategies for combating child marriage, help share best practices regionally, and support programs to implement these strategies.

To Heads of State and Government and Parliaments

Set 18 as the national minimum age of marriage for both boys and girls and develop strategies and training for enforcement.

Enact marriage laws that include provisions that establish free and full consent of both spouses, requirements for proof of age before marriage licenses are obtained, and penalties for violence or intimidation against anyone who refuses to marry.

Ratify the Maputo Protocol.

Ensure access to reproductive information and healthcare for all girls and women in rural and urban areas by allocating greater resources from national health expenditure.

Provide access to information to parents, guardians, and community leaders about the harmful effects of child marriage, for example, by initiating a nationwide awareness campaign against child marriage, emphasizing the health risks of early pregnancy, the benefits of girls' education, the law prohibiting child marriage, consequences for those who break the law, and the mechanism for reporting child marriage and obtaining assistance.

Implement nationwide programming to empower girls. Build on best practices by providing economic incentives and support to girls' families coupled with designing programs tailored to local communities that provide girls with safe spaces and equip girls with information about the harms and illegality of child marriage, awareness about sexual and reproductive health, including menstrual hygiene management, skills training, career guidance, and support networks.

To National Ministries of Education

Ensure girls' access to quality education, including secondary education, by:

Committing the resources necessary to guarantee access to free, compulsory primary education for all girls and boys.

Developing retention strategies, such as incentives for families to keep girls in school, offering scholarships, expanding school feeding programs, ensuring schools have adequate sanitation facilities, and offsetting the costs of secondary school by subsidizing or eliminating costs of uniforms, exams, and textbooks.

Develop retention strategies and life skills programs for married girls through targeted outreach and support programs, initiating evening or part-time formal schooling and vocational training opportunities, and following up with students who drop out of school.

End the discriminatory practice of mandatory pregnancy testing of girls, expelling pregnant girls from school, and excluding married students from school.

Empower girls and boys with information and knowledge of their reproductive and sexual rights by introducing comprehensive sex education curriculum.

To National Ministries of Health

Develop and implement a national policy and strategy on adolescent reproductive health with a strong focus on the right to health information and services, including contraception; address factors that contribute to unplanned pregnancies; and train health workers on engaging adolescents.

Improve access to emergency obstetric care including monitoring of labor, trained birth attendants, newborn care, and contraception.

To National Ministries of Justice and Home Affairs

Provide regular training for police and prosecutors on their legal responsibilities to investigate and prosecute violence against women, including child marriage.

Ensure that police and prosecutors investigate and prosecute forgeries of birth or marriage certificates under the applicable law.

Authored by Annerieke Smaak and Nisha Varia

Reviewed by Dewa Mavhinga and Agnes Odhiambo

Edited by Clive Baldwin, Zama Coursen-Neff, Liesl Gerntholtz, and Danielle Haas

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Girls who marry young are often denied a range of human rights: many must discontinue their education, face serious health risks from early and multiple pregnancies, and suffer sexual and domestic violence. Agenda 2063, the African Union's 50-year action plan for development, recognizes that child marriage is a major impediment to regional development and prosperity.

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Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted?  May 2012

Has the information been revised or updated? No

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic?  No since it happened in 2012

Are the links functional? Yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?  Yes

Who is the intended audience?  to readers that wanted to know about forced marriages especially a girl’s story.

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?  Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Damien McElroy

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they? yes, Foreign Affairs Correspondant

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?  he specializes in foreign affairs.

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? Twitter

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? The URL show is it a main source from the news.

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? Niger

Is the information supported by evidence? Yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? Yes

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? Yes

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? Yes

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? No

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?  Inform

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? Facts but have some opinions in it

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Yes

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? Yes

Paragraph
This article is presents itself by the title. This article is obviously about children getting sold into marriages. Their is a little bias towards against forced marriages because it is wrong for little children getting married just for things. Just because their family is poor. "Girls growing up in Niger face a host of disadvantages including an average of four years at school and stunting from a lack of food." This is saying that girls that are sold into marriages have a lot of disadvantages.

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Aid workers said the crisis, which stretches across the sub-Saharan region after drought and crop failure, is to worsen steadily as it faces the lean season of June and July.

Justin Byworth, the head of World Vision, said the food crisis was passing unnoticed by the wider world despite the horrific consequences. "Niger has been in a worsening situation since the end of last year but there is no one line of disaster that has been crossed," he said. "It is an emergency not a catastrophe but families are doing extreme things to cope.

"I have an eight-year old daughter myself and I could not imagine that happening in a family."

In a country where laws are regarded as a colonial imposition decades after independence from France, Mrs Soumana explained that the legal age for marriage is 15 for girls and 16 for boys.

"In reality girls are married off as young as seven years old," she said. "There are many reasons for early child marriage but the food crisis is making it worse."

Fatima Ismaghail, 13, was rescued from an arranged marriage in the Tera district of western Niger by a local judge.

"My father sold me to a man who was 20-years-old and my cousin. Nobody told me about it, and I never discussed it with my mother or my grandmother but I planned to run away if it went ahead," she said. "I heard on the radio that young girls are losing their lives when their parents marry them off, because they have children when they are far too young and may die in childbirth. I was very afraid that this would happen to me.

"I don't understand why my parents gave me away to be married so young but I would like to get married and have children when I grow up."

Touayi Oumar, her mother, said she had felt powerless to stop the marriage.

"I'm so pleased that this marriage was cancelled. I want my daughter to be able to choose the person that she marries and it should be somebody that she loves and who makes her happy," she said.

"What can a child bring to a marriage with a man? Children know nothing of the duties of marriage and having sex with a man is sometimes difficult even for an older women, how can a child be expected to do that?"

Girls growing up in Niger face a host of disadvantages including an average of four years at school and stunting from a lack of food. According to a Save the Children survey of 165 countries released this month, it is the worst place in the world to be a mother with a one in 16 risk of dying in childbirth. There is also a one in seven chance the child will die as an infant.

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Children as young as seven sold as child brides in Niger

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Aid workers said the crisis, which stretches across the sub-Saharan region after drought and crop failure, is to worsen steadily as it faces the lean season of June and July. Justin Byworth, the head of World Vision, said the food crisis was passing unnoticed by the wider world despite the horrific consequences.

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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test?

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? March 8, 2013

Has the information been revised or updated? No

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic?  It is fairly current, within the past five years.

Are the links functional? Yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Yes

Who is the intended audience? The audience is anyone interested in learning about child marriages that occur around the world.

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? CBS News

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they? No, it was just published by CBSN.

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? CBS news is a very reliable and valid news sourse for people all over the world

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? Yes, their facebook, twitter, reddit, flipboard, and email address are available.

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? The URL is .com, showing that this is a reliable website and news source.

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? The information comes from the government of these countries as well as the human rights watch and first person sources.

Is the information supported by evidence? Yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? Yes

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? No

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? Yes, it simply states facts and inforation

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? No

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?  To inform

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? The information given is fact.

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Yes

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? There is some cultural and moral biases.

Research review:
Article 1:  Third of girls in 42 countries forced into child marriages”

This article and source discusses the statistics and facts behind girls that are sold/forced into their marriage across the world. They present their information by telling stories from victims of child marriage and how their human rights are being violated. The source also precedes this by giving facts and stats about girls that are traded away from their families or sold to be married. One type of bias that I especially recognized within this particular new source was “spin” bias. This occurs when an author emphasizes certain aspects of a news story in hope that other aspects will be ignored. For example, In the first paragraph, the author stated, “ The 17-year-old beaten to death for refusing to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather. The teen dragged by her family to be raped to force her into marrying an elderly man. They are among 39,000 girls forced into marriage every day around the world, sold like cattle to enrich their families.” While this is an important and true statement, it also only highlights one side of the story. In this article the “good guys” were the girls that are getting traded into marriage and the “bad guys” are the families that are doing this to their children and the government that is overlooking it.

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JUBA, South Sudan The 17-year-old beaten to death for refusing to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather. The teen dragged by her family to be raped to force her into marrying an elderly man. They are among 39,000 girls forced into marriage every day around the world, sold like cattle to enrich their families.

More than one-third of all girls are married in 42 countries, according to the U.N. Population Fund, referring to females under the age of 18. The highest number of cases occurs in some of the poorest countries, the agency figures show, with the West African nation of Niger at the bottom of the list with 75 percent of girls married before they turn 18. In Bangladesh the figure is 66 percent and in Central African Republic and Chad it is 68 percent.

Most child marriages take place in South Asia and rural sub-Saharan Africa, according to the population fund. In terms of absolute numbers, India, because of its large population, has the most child marriages with child brides in 47 percent of all marriages.

Government statistics in South Sudan show half the girls there aged 15 to 19 are married, with some brides as young as 12 years old.

"The country's widespread child marriage exacerbates South Sudan's pronounced gender gaps in school enrollment, contributes to soaring maternal mortality rates, and violates the right of girls to be free from violence," says a Human Rights Watch report published Friday to mark International Women's Day.

The report blames child marriage in part for an appallingly low female school attendance, with girls making up only 39 percent of primary school students and 30 percent at secondary school.

A UNICEF report this month blamed child marriage in part for poor school attendance figures in Congo, where one in four children are not in school.

Child marriage is not common in South Africa, where prosecutors are investigating what charges can be brought in the case of a 13-year-old epileptic girl who was forced to leave school and marry a 57-year-old traditional healer in January.

Human Rights Watch said that in South Sudan there is a "near total lack of protection" for victims who try to resist marriage or to leave abusive marriages. It called for a coordinated government response including more training for police and prosecutors on girls' rights to protection.

Aguet N. of South Sudan, for example, was married to a 75-year-old man when she was 15 years old, according to testimony she gave to Human Rights Watch.

"This man went to my uncles and paid a dowry of 80 cows. I resisted the marriage. They threatened me," the report said. "They said, `If you want your siblings to be taken care of, you will marry this man.' I said he is too old for me. They said, `You will marry this old man whether you like it or not because he has given us something to eat.' They beat me so badly. They also beat my mother because she was against the marriage."

Reducing child marriages is key to achieving U.N. millennium goals to improve child mortality and reduce maternal deaths, according to Malawi's Health Minister Catherine Gotani Hara. She said teen pregnancies accounted for up to 30 percent of maternal deaths in that southern African country.

"By ending early marriages we can avert up to 30 percent of maternal deaths and also reduce the neonatal mortality rate," she said in a statement published by the World Health Organization.

Complications of pregnancy and childbirth are leading causes of death in young women aged 15 to 19 years in developing countries, according to Dr. Flavia Bustreo of the WHO.

Early marriages also will prevent South Sudan from achieving the goal of having women hold 25 percent of government jobs, said Lorna James Elia of the local Voices for Change advocacy group.

She said women activists grouped under a project "Girls, Not Brides," are trying to engage community leaders and traditional chiefs to end early and forced marriages.

Young brides also confront more violence, according to U.N. studies: Girls who marry before they are 18 are more likely to become victims of violence from their partner, with the risk increasing as the age gap between the couple gets larger.

Traditionally, poor families marry off young girls to reduce the family expenses on food, clothing and education. A big incentive can be the dowries older men will pay for a young bride, sometimes hundreds of cows.

Another South Sudan child bride, Ageer M., told Human Rights Watch, "The man I loved did not have cows and my uncles rejected him. My husband paid 120 cows. ... I refused him but they beat me badly and took me by force to him. The man forced me to have sex with him so I had to stay there."

In South Sudan, and some other countries, early marriage is seen as a way to protect girls from sexual violence and ensure that they do not bring dishonor on the family by getting pregnant out of wedlock.

Human Rights Watch called for South Sudan's government to clearly set 18 as the minimum age for marriage. But the country's minister for gender and child affairs, Agnes Kwaje Losuba, said the Child's Act already does that.

"We need to make sure this is implemented," she said.

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Third of girls in 42 countries forced into child marriages

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JUBA, South Sudan The 17-year-old beaten to death for refusing to marry a man old enough to be her grandfather. The teen dragged by her family to be raped to force her into marrying an elderly man. They are among 39,000 girls forced into marriage every day around the world, sold like cattle to enrich their families.

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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test?

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? October 29, 2017

Has the information been revised or updated? Yes

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? Current

Are the links functional? Yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Yes

Who is the intended audience? The audience is anyone wanting to learn more abount child arranged marriages in Africa.

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? The National World News

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they?  Just the title of the publisher

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? The credentials of the news source on which it was published

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? Yes, their twitter, facebook, email, etc.. was provided.

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? No

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? The information comes from first personprimary souces as well as data from Save the Children and Girls not Brides.

Is the information supported by evidence? Yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? I’m not sure.

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?  Yes

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion?  The tone is not overall biased, due to the personal and emotial stories given, but the information at hand is not a biased opinion.

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? No

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade? To inform

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? The information is fact.

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Yes, for the most part.

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? There are personal biases from the victims telling their stories, because they had been through a lot.

Research review:
Article 2:  “As Africa tackles child marriage, young survivors speak out”

This specific article and source takes a look at many survivors of sold child marriage and the information behind it. They choose to present their information by stating many quotes from young survivors and victims. They use wording that creates a tone towards the unjusticeness of what is occurring in Africa and why it needs to stop. They also state many facts and statistics that leaves a conclusion about the negativity of child arranged marriages. The main bias that I noticed in this article would be bias by story selection: a pattern of highlighting news stories that coincide with the agenda of the Left while ignoring stories that coincide with the agenda of the Right. They used, justly might I add, many stories of victims and survivors to pull on the heart strings of the readers and to make their point clear. An example of this would be when they used a quote from a victim that said, "I was given to a man that I didn't choose before my body was even ready to have sex," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "I couldn't even move for a week afterward because I was swollen and bleeding." This statement allows readers to hear only one point of view instead of the other, weather the point made was morally right or not, it is still bias.

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This photo, taken in Dakar, Senegal on October 23, 2017, is of Leila, who asked her last name not be used to protect her family. She said she was forced to marry a man who beat her at the age of 14. Carley Petesch / The Associated Press

Sitting on the floor and dressed in black, the 15-year-old held her baby as panicked tears welled in her eyes. Her husband, two decades her senior, could kill her if he found out she was telling her story, she said.

She was married at age 13 in the West African nation of Guinea because her parents feared she could harm her marriage prospects by having premarital sex. At the time, she said, she had not even developed breasts.

"I was given to a man that I didn't choose before my body was even ready to have sex," she said, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "I couldn't even move for a week afterward because I was swollen and bleeding."

Child marriage remains deeply entrenched in West and Central Africa, home to six of the 10 countries with the highest rates in the world. Rights groups and political and religious leaders from across the region gathered in Senegal this past week to seek ways to curb the practice. Outspoken survivors of child marriage urged them on.

More than half of girls in Guinea are married before age 18. While the country recently banned marriage for those under that age, observers say the practice remains widespread. Some girls enter arranged marriages during times of insecurity or when families are under economic strain.

"This is a complex issue driven by poverty, cultural norms and families trying to do the best for their children," said Save The Children International chief executive Helle Thorning-Schmidt. "But until we break the cycle where the only way a girl can give her family honour is to marry and have children, then we will not change this."

Child marriage affects nearly 15 million girls around the globe. The rate is as high as 76 per cent in Niger; in Chad and Central African Republic it is 68 per cent. Mali and Burkina Faso have rates above 50 per cent, according to data from Save the Children and Girls Not Brides.

Experts say education for girls is key to providing them with opportunities beyond marriage, and to improving regional prosperity.

Musu Bakoto Sawo, now a 27-year-old lawyer and human rights advocate from Gambia, was married at age 14. She was 21 when she became a widow and inherited nothing. She said education is the only reason she has thrived, calling it "the only way I could go against the system".

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Read more: India ruling on underage marital sex 'will prove difficult to enforce' More Syrian child brides in Jordan amid poverty and uncertainty Cairo name riskiest megacity for women, worse since Arab spring
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Even for those who avoid an early marriage, social consequences can be immense.

Fatoumata, 14, called it "the nightmare of my life" when her family said she was to marry her 39-year-old cousin. She fled that night in her pyjamas to stay with a friend's family.

"My father said if I refused this marriage I was no longer his child," she said. "He threatened my mother too ... she has suffered because of me."

She gave only her first name for fear of reprisals.

Some young women may embrace early marriages, seeing them as protection from insecurity in conflict-ridden areas, said Zuwaira Bello of the advocacy group Girl Child Concerns. The group operates in northern Nigeria, where the Boko Haram extremist insurgency is known for kidnapping young women and forcing them into marriages.

Involving former child brides in community activism will help discourage child marriages that seek protection from unrest, Ms Bello said.

Some young women who escaped forced marriages now spread the word against the practice.

Leila, who asked that her last name not be used to protect her family, said her uncle in Niger forced her to marry a man at age 14 because he owed a debt he could not repay. A year later, she was pregnant.

She said her husband beat her for refusing sex. After a second pregnancy, she was able to escape, get a divorce and return to her studies. Through tears, she urged other young brides to remain hopeful.

"I would say to them to be patient and remain courageous," she said.

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As Africa tackles child marriage, young survivors speak out

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Sitting on the floor and dressed in black, the 15-year-old held her baby as panicked tears welled in her eyes. Her husband, two decades her senior, could kill her if he found out she was telling her story, she said.

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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test?

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? March 2018

Has the information been revised or updated? Yes

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? Current

Are the links functional? Yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Yes

Who is the intended audience? The audience involves people interested in learning about arranged child marriages in Africa and around the world.

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? UNICEF

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they? The publisher is constantly monitoring women and children being sold into marriage and updating their information

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? The fact that it is a reliable publishing news source and its constant watch on women and children in Africa.

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? Yes, there is contact informaton to the news source.

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? Yes, it is a .org, showing its reliability.

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? Much of the information comes from the UNICEF global database.

Is the information supported by evidence? Yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? I am not completely sure

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? Yes

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? Yes

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? No

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?  To inform

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? Fact

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Yes

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? No biases

Research review:
Article 3:  “Child marriage is a violation of human rights, but is all too common”

This article did a very good job of stating facts and information about the topic at hand, child arranged marriages in Africa. The source also had a nice flow to it as they presented their information in an orderly fashion. The topic was presented through charts/graphs, statistics, and facts given about the idea. Overall, this source had little to no bias in it and did a very good job of keeping the information professional and non objective. If I were to say a specific bias within it, it would be selection bias. Selection bias is the bias introduced by the selection of individuals, groups or data for analysis in such a way that proper randomization is not achieved, thereby ensuring that the sample obtained is not representative of the population intended to be analyzed. It is sometimes referred to as the selection effect. An example of this within the article is when labeled a graph, “Percentage of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or in union before age 15 and before age 18, by region.” I call this bias because they only surveyed women from age 20-24 which is not a very broad range of women. Overall, this source was very well written with few biases.

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Updated: Mar 2018

Child marriage is a violation of human rights, but is all too common

Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights. Many factors interact to place a girl at risk of marriage, including poverty, the perception that marriage will provide 'protection', family honour, social norms, customary or religious laws that condone the practice, an inadequate legislative framework and the state of a country's civil registration system. Child marriage often compromises a girl's development by resulting in early pregnancy and social isolation, interrupting her schooling, limiting her opportunities for career and vocational advancement and placing her at increased risk of domestic violence. Child marriage also affects boys, but to a lesser degree than girls.

Cohabitation - when a couple lives 'in union', as if married - raises the same human rights concerns as marriage. When a girl lives with a man and takes on the role of his caregiver, the assumption is often that she has become an adult, even if she has not yet reached the age of 18. Additional concerns due to the informality of the relationship - in terms of inheritance, citizenship and social recognition, for example - may make girls in informal unions vulnerable in different ways than girls who are married.

The issue of child marriage is addressed in a number of international conventions and agreements. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, for example, covers the right to protection from child marriage in article 16, which states: "The betrothal and the marriage of a child shall have no legal effect, and all necessary action, including legislation, shall be taken to specify a minimum age for marriage...." The right to 'free and full' consent to marriage is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which says that consent cannot be 'free and full' when one of the parties involved is not sufficiently mature to make an informed decision about a life partner. Although marriage is not mentioned directly in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, child marriage is linked to other rights - such as the right to freedom of expression, the right to protection from all forms of abuse, and the right to be protected from harmful traditional practices - and is frequently addressed by the Committee on the Rights of the Child. Other international agreements related to child marriage are the Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa.

Across the globe, levels of child marriage are highest in sub-Saharan Africa, where around 4 in 10 young women were married before age 18, followed by South Asia, where 3 in 10 were married before age 18. Lower levels of child marriage are found in Latin America and Caribbean (25 per cent), the Middle East and North Africa (17 per cent), and Eastern Europe and Central Asia (11 per cent).

The prevalence of child marriage is decreasing globally, with the most progress in the past decade seen in South Asia, where a girl's risk of marrying in childhood has dropped by more than a third, from nearly 50 per cent to 30 per cent.

Still, the total number of girls married in childhood stands at 12 million per year, and progress must be significantly accelerated in order to end the practice by 2030 - the target set out in the Sustainable Development Goals. Without further acceleration, more than 150 million additional girls will marry before their 18 th birthday by 2030.

Globally, about one in six adolescent girls (aged 15 to 19) are currently married or in union. West and Central Africa has the highest proportion of married adolescents (27 per cent), followed by Eastern and Southern Africa (20 per cent) and the Middle East and North Africa (13 per cent).

Child marriage affects girls in far greater numbers than boys, with the prevalence among boys about one fifth the level among girls globally. Available data confirm that in every region boys are less likely than girls to marry before age 18, though there are countries in which boys marrying before age 18 is not uncommon. However, data on the number of boys affected by child marriage are limited, making it difficult to draw definitive conclusions on its status and progress.

Percentage of women aged 20 to 24 years who were first married or in union before ages 15 and 18 Download Data

The term 'child marriage' is used to refer to both formal marriages and informal unions in which a girl or boy lives with a partner as if married before the age of 18. An informal union is one in which a couple live together for some time, intending to have a lasting relationship, but do not have a formal civil or religious ceremony. The main sources of such data are national censuses and national household surveys, predominantly the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) and Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS).

In 2003, UNICEF and partners agreed to focus on five indicators related to child marriage:

Percentage of women 20 to 49 first married or in union by age 15 and 18, by age group

Percentage of girls 15 to 19 years of age currently married or in union

Spousal age difference

Percentage of women currently in a polygynous union, by age groups

Percentage of ever-married women who were directly involved in the choice of their first husband or partner.

Many countries also collect data on the marital status and age at first marriage for boys and men, thereby allowing a comparison of gender differentials related to child marriage.

The context and indicators related to child marriage and cohabitation can be approached through the examination of age groups. One approach is to consider all women in a society. Another would be to observe the situation of girls aged 15 to 19 to determine the number of girls currently married or in union and the characteristics associated with that age group. However, gauging how many of those girls will be married or in union by their 18th birthday is more complex because many have not yet reached the age of 18. Looking at the group of women 20 to 24 years old is simpler and allows for the inclusion of all girls who were married or in union by age 18 within the closest time period for which complete data are available.

MICS surveys have standardized modules on marriage for men and for women
Download the MICS module on marriage for women (PDF) Download the MICS module on marriage for men (PDF)

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Updated: Mar 2018 Child marriage is a violation of human rights, but is all too common Marriage before the age of 18 is a fundamental violation of human rights.

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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test?

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? January 31, 2017

Has the information been revised or updated? No

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? Current

Are the links functional? Yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Yes

Who is the intended audience? People wanting to learn more and be informed about child marriage in Africa.

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? The author is Agnes Odhiambo and the publisher is the Human Rights Watch.

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they? Yes, she is the senior reasearcher in the Women’s Rights division.

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? She is a head reasearcher in a large human rights watch organization that understands what she is talking about and knows when a souce is right to use.

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? Yes, there is contact information to both the publisher and the author.

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? Yes, the URL is .org showing the articles credibility.

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? The information comes from first hand primary sources as well as many articles with research done on this topic which includes facts.

Is the information supported by evidence? Yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? I am not sure.

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? Yes

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? Yes

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? No

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?  To inform

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? Fact

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Yes

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? No biases.

Research Review:
Article 4: “Scourge of Child Marriage in Africa Continues”

This article discussed child marriages in Africa and the negative effect that it has as well as the people that it has affected. They presented their topic by using first person primary source stories as well as giving facts and statistics on the topic. This author did not consistently use bias, but she did have an overall bias tone to the story as a whole. I would not say that everything is objective, but she was indeed not in favor of child marriage, rightfully so. The mood of the story was somber, hearing each story about the girls that were wrongly sold into their marriage at a very young age. Overall, proper facts were stated and they got their point across to the audience.

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"I've never experienced happiness in my marriage. I've never seen the benefit of being married," Chimwemwe told me when I interviewed her in a small village in rural Malawi.

Chimwemwe was just 12-years-old when she married a 17-year-old boy to escape poverty at home. Like many girls I have interviewed in South Sudan, Tanzania, and Malawi about their marriages, she was hoping for a life of love and prosperity, but instead endured poverty and violence at the hands of her husband.

In sub-Saharan Africa, about one in four girls marry before age 18. Statistics show that African nations account for 17 of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriage globally. For example, according to new UNICEF data, 76 percent of girls in Niger and close to 70 percent of girls in Central African Republic and Chad marry before they turn 18. In Malawi, one in every two girls marry before age 18.

It's encouraging that African leaders have put child marriage high on their agenda. This week, at the conclusion of the 28 th African Union Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, leaders held a high-level meeting on an AU campaign to end child marriage.

The campaign has already seen African heads of states adopt an agreement on child marriage back in June 2015, which sets out detailed steps that governments should take to reduce this harmful practice. Steps include enacting and implementing laws that set the minimum marriage age at 18 or above - with no exceptions - and putting in place comprehensive and well-financed national plans of action.

But despite growing support from African leaders, progress to end child marriage has been slow. Without accelerating changes on the ground, the number of child brides will double by 2050.

There is no simple solution for ending child marriage. Ensuring that girls have access to decent education is important. It's also key that community and religious leaders understand and commit to their respective roles in ending child marriage. But we should also constantly assess if efforts to end child marriage are working or not. If they are not, Africa's leaders should speak out and act promptly.

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Scourge of Child Marriage in Africa Continues

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In sub-Saharan Africa, about one in four girls marry before age 18. It's encouraging that African leaders have put child marriage high on their agenda. But despite growing support from African leaders, progress to end child marriage has been slow.

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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test? yes
This one focuses on the facts and it hits a lot of angles while doing that. It talks how they don’t blame the girls for this and the pregnancies. Also, this article represents the after affects of all the arranged and forced marriage. The pregnancies are not only causes an upset but it also affects the health of some of these young girls and it addresses that aspect of it. I really appreciate how much information all around it provides. It refers to surveys and tests and other articles that have been done on this topic. The authors those using facts and quotes to support only gives information showing the change and how they are fixing a problem. This article is not bias in the typical since it’s just one sided.”Instead of blaming girls and trying to change their behaviour, the underlying reasons for pregnancy in the young needed to be tackled. This included keeping more girls in school until they are 18, providing quality sex education and access to health services, educating boys and men about girls' rights, and enforcing laws against child marriage.” This one of the few comments that show the author's belief in the programs. But, if any there is not muhc bias in this article I’m glad I picked it and it will help.

Child marriage could trigger surge in Africa's under-15s pregnancy rate

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? oct 30 2013

Has the information been revised or updated?no

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? no

Are the links functional? yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? yes

Who is the intended audience? people all over the world

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? no

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? liz ford

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they?no

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? Liz Ford is deputy editor of the Guardian's Global development website. She leads on women's rights and gender equality issues. She was previously editor of the Guardian's Katine website, and before that worked on the Guardian's education desk.

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? yes

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? .com

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? facts research references to other articles

Is the information supported by evidence? yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? yes

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? no

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? no

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? no

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade? The purpose is to inform.

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? fact and opinion

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? no, has a taken stance

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? They are political and cultural.

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The number of girls giving birth before the age of 15 in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by more than 1 million by 2030 unless urgent action is taken to end child marriage, get more girls into school and ensure their rights are protected, according to the UN's flagship population report.

If current trends continue, the number of girls under 15 having babies in this region is projected to increase from 1.8 in 2010 to 3 million over the next 17 years. This would take the estimated total number of under-18s giving birth in sub-Saharan Africa to more than 16 million by 2030, up from 10.1 million in 2010.

The report, Motherhood in childhood: facing the challenge of adolescent pregnancy, published on Wednesday by the UN population fund (UNFPA), said major changes were needed in addressing teenage pregnancies.

Instead of blaming girls and trying to change their behaviour, the underlying reasons for pregnancy in the young needed to be tackled. This included keeping more girls in school until they are 18, providing quality sex education and access to health services, educating boys and men about girls' rights, and enforcing laws against child marriage.

Despite international commitments to end the practice, one in three girls in developing countries is married before the age of 18, and 50 million girls are at risk of being married before 15 between now and 2020, the report said.

"Too often, society blames only the girl for getting pregnant," said UNFPA's executive director, Babatunde Osotimehin. "In many communities and cultures, the status of women is such that everything that happens to them is considered their fault. But changing behaviour has been wrongly seen as the sole solution. [Pregnancy] is less to do with girls' personal behaviour and more to do with the behaviour of families, communities and governments around the world. Adolescent pregnancy is not only the result of recklessness, but an absence of choices."

Girls were often denied the right to decide when, and if, they had children because in many countries and communities they are still regarded as unequal to boys, he said. Girls who have babies when they are young have had their "rights violated and their future has been forever derailed". Boys must "be socialised to see girls as equal", he added.

Osotimehin said girls were particularly at risk of death and disability from early pregnancy. The report said early pregnancy increased the risk of maternal deaths and obstetric fistulae. About 70,000 adolescents in poorer countries die annually in childbirth or through pregnancy-related complications.

The report found that the vast majority of adolescent births occurred in developing countries, predominantly among girls from low-income households in rural areas, with little or no education. Nine out of 10 pregnant teenagers in poor countries are married or have a partner.

According to figures obtained by UNFPA through surveys in 54 countries, in 2010 36.4 million women aged between 20 and 24 and living in poorer countries reported having given birth before they were 18.

About 17.4 million were in south Asia, the region with the highest number of under-18 births. Latin America and the Caribbean had the lowest rates of pregnancy.

The survey figures also revealed that 3% of young women said they had given birth before they were 15. The report said that one girl in 10 had a child before the age of 15 in Bangladesh, Chad, Guinea, Mali, Mozambique and Niger, countries where early marriage is common. West and central Africa accounted for the largest percentage of reported under-15 births. Niger, which has the world's highest adolescent birth rate, also has the highest rate of child marriage.

"Many countries have laws against child marriage, but they don't enforce them," said Osotimehin. "Impunity is what reigns around the world. We must protect adolescent girls. Justice should prevail."

The report acknowledged the difficulties of obtaining information about girls aged between 10 and 14, but pointed out that not having this data rendered these girls and the challenges they faced invisible to policymakers.
Topics

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Child marriage could trigger surge in Africa's under-15s pregnancy rate - UN

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The number of girls giving birth before the age of 15 in sub-Saharan Africa will increase by more than 1 million by 2030 unless urgent action is taken to end child marriage, get more girls into school and ensure their rights are protected, according to the UN's flagship population report.

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Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? November 17 2017

Has the information been revised or updated? No

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? Current

Are the links functional? Yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Yes

Who is the intended audience? Readers that want to about girls being sold into marriages

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Peace Hyde

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they? N/A

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?  She works with the website, Forbes Africa, and also she did an interview.

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? Yes, e-mail

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? No

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? Nigeria

Is the information supported by evidence? Yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? Yes

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? No

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion?No

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? No

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade? Inform

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? Fact

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? Yes

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? Yes

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This article presents that Nigeria is home to the largest amount of child brides ever. In this article, a 12 year old girl getting married to a 65 year old."Fatima’s marriage is prohibited under Nigeria’s Child Rights Act (CRA), which bans marriage before the age of 18." This is basically saying that people don't care about the rules. Since Nigeria have the largest amount of child brides. Also, there are other stories about children bride, like a 13 year old was beat because her "husband" got mad that she was reading and wanting to go to school. At the age of 14 she was already divorce.

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Idrisu Ali grimaces as he recalls the day he sent his 12-year-old daughter, Fatima, away to live with a 65-year-old man.

Although the practice is common in Nigeria's remote northern state of Bauchi, Ali did not feel entirely comfortable with the idea of giving away his little girl's hand in marriage - to a man old enough to be her grandfather.

"I was sad because he was too old. I wanted her to marry someone younger, say 55 or 50 because he could take care of her for a longer time before he dies. But he was a successful farmer in the village and he paid a good dowry," says Ali in his rundown shack in Bauchi, the state capital.

The dowry consisted of some kola nuts (native to the African tropics), a cow, a bag of salt and a sewing machine. To protect his daughter from the negative glares of society, Ali accepted the generous offer and sent Fatima on her way to her new life as a wife.

"This is what happens when a girl reaches puberty. It is our culture and that is the right thing for a woman to do. She will grow up quickly and learn how to take care of a man and the home and bring honor to her family," says Ali.

For Fatima and many other young girls in Northern Nigeria, their demise into forced marriages is puzzling.

Fatima's marriage is prohibited under Nigeria's Child Rights Act (CRA), which bans marriage before the age of 18. But federal laws are at loggerheads with age-old customs, as well as the implementation of Sharia law or Islamic law in some Muslim states.

"As a father you have to do what is best for your family. If your daughter is ready for marriage, you do what you must to make sure she finds a good man," says Ali.
READ MORE: Here's How Much Money Kevin Spacey Could Lose Following His Sexual Harassment Scandal
Nigeria is home to the largest number of child brides in Africa, with 23 million girls and women who are married in childhood according to the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). GirlsnotBrides.org asserts that globally, the number of teen brides is expected to reach 1.2 billion by 2050 if there is no reduction with one in three girls in the developing world married before age 18.

The practice has continued to gain prominence in northern Nigeria due to prevailing attitudes in an area with gender disparity. The grim situation is particularly pronounced in this region due mainly to strong resistance to CRA with opponents stating that some aspects of the Act are against religion and therefore cannot be followed.

"According to current figures, more than 50,000 girls worldwide are married while still children, often before they may be physically and emotionally ready to become wives and mothers and this endangers the life trajectories of these girls in numerous ways," says Oby Ezekwesili, Senior Economic Advisor and Co-Founder of #Bringbackourgirls campaign.

Such was the case for Mamuna Ibrahim. At the age of 14, she is already a divorcee.

"When I was 13, one of my father's friends came to the house and asked for a bride. My father chose me because I was the oldest out of my three siblings. I did not want to go with him. I wanted to go to school and be an air hostess but I could not disobey my father so I accepted," says Ibrahim.

Her husband, a 38-year-old trader, took her away to the remote dust-blown state of Borno in north eastern Nigeria. Immediately after the marriage, Ibrahim's problems began.

"I wanted to continue my education but he said no. One day he came home and I was reading a storybook and he got really angry and beat me. He said a wife's place is in the house not at school. He was abusive and demanded sex every evening. It was painful," says Ibrahim.

To escape the traumatic ordeal, she ran home to her mother and begged not to be returned. Her angry husband divorced her immediately under Sharia Law, which requires a man to say out loud "I divorce you" three times for a marriage to be over.

"My father was very angry and embarrassed. He threatened to kill me but my mother and other elders of the family pleaded with him. He stopped talking to me because I brought shame to the family. He disowned me," says Ibrahim.

She stays with her mother's sister on the outskirts of Kaduna. Her situation is worsened due to her early pregnancy. At three months in and with no education or prospects of finding a job, Ibrahim roams the streets of Kaduna selling bean cake and mobile phone vouchers to make ends meet.
READ MORE: The Uncertain Future Of Nigeria's Female Prisoners
According to the International Center For Research on Women (ICRW), the impact of the practice of child marriage is felt both at the individual and societal levels and it is therefore imperative in alleviating poverty and subsequently, promoting economic development.

"Child marriages have an adverse impact on the economy by limiting opportunities for career and vocational advancement for young girls. It therefore disempowers women and stifles the prosperity of a country because when a significant number of the workforce is rendered economically inactive, the nation will suffer," says Bismarck Rewane, CEO, Financial Derivatives Company in Lagos.

Its health implications are just as dire.

"There are several health risks that these young girls are exposed to. Most of them get pregnant at an age where normal vaginal births are difficult because their hips are not wide enough for the baby to be pushed through the vaginal canal and this can lead to the death of the mother and the baby. Also, the babies are exposed to diseases due to the lack of micronutrients in the girl's body and most often babies do not survive," says Dr. Mariam Doku, a pediatrician at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Ghana.

Her claims are further buttressed by the International Women's Health Coalition (IWHC) that asserts that teen brides are more likely to contract HIV and are also exposed to sexually transmitted infections due to their inability to negotiate safer sexual practices. As President of the IWHC, Françoise Girard, has played a key role in advocacy on sexual and reproductive health and women's rights with UN agencies.

It is her belief that ending the practice of teen brides is a smart thing to do as it falls in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which has made ending child marriage by 2030 a key target.
READ MORE: 'Without Money There's No Love'
Organizations like the World Bank, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and UNICEF continue to support efforts in many countries but according to Rewane, much more must be done.

"The notion that sending girls off to marry much older men is a better option is also partly attributable to poverty. For instance, a very poor family is likely to reason that marrying their daughter off early will provide her basic needs and in addition, the gains gotten from her marriage may be part of the survival strategy of the family. So we need to tackle the root of the issue, which is poverty and that means efforts to abolish this practice needs to be a state-level intervention," asserts Rewane.

For those in remote areas who are dependent on subsistence farming, the practice can be influenced by seasonal conditions. For example, in the years when rains or crops fail, the practice of "drought brides", thus girls who bring in a dowry, while being one fewer mouth to feed, contribute to pushing up the numbers of teen brides dramatically. Four of the 10 countries with the highest rates of child marriage are in West Africa's Sahel and Sahara belt, according to UNICEF.

In many of these communities, a family's wealth is measured in terms of the herd of cattle they own and young girls are the medium of payment. As policy makers continue to lobby traditional heads to implement the CRA in local communities, the dilemma continues for girls like Ibrahim whose cries for freedom continue to fall on deaf ears.

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Fatima, 12, Husband, 65 - The Dire Story Of Child Brides - Forbes Africa

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Idrisu Ali grimaces as he recalls the day he sent his 12-year-old daughter, Fatima, away to live with a 65-year-old man. Although the practice is common in Nigeria's remote northern state of Bauchi, Ali did not feel entirely comfortable with the idea of giving away his little girl's hand in marriage - to a man old enough to be her grandfather.

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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test?

The source talks about arrange marriages as a whole at first. Then is breaks in to sections of specific regions and cultures. It talked about the how in different cultures this was just the was they do it. Also, how ‘love matches’ aren’t for evryone but, feel everyone should have the chocie. This article basically explains why it existeds and happens and how it start off how it became. I think there is a little bias in the beinging and intro of the artilce  but it would be hard to keep bias out of an introduction. Things and phrases like, Now don't get me wrong, while an arranged marriage certainly won’t work for everyone… just like "love matches" don't, there are some very real advantages you may have never considered. So before you completely discard the idea as being old-fashioned, consider a few things you may have never thought about. Or they also recognize the benefits that such partnerships can provide.There is more basically the whole first and second paragraphs,but after that there is a lot of good information and it’s good to see both sides. But, at the end these are children we are talking about and this is not and never okay.

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? 2013

Has the information been revised or updated?no

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? yes

Are the links functional? yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question?

Who is the intended audience? to inform poeple all over the world

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? no

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? .AfricanWeddingTraditions.com

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they?no

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic?

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? no

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?.com

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? all over

Is the information supported by evidence? kind of

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? yes

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? no

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? no

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? no

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade?

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? facts and opinion

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? yes

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases?Cultural

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Arranged marriage statistics vary depending on who you ask or the sources you reference. Arranged marriages are just one of many marriage patterns found among African wedding traditions. I know this is going to sound a bit controversial but contrary to popular belief, arranged marriages do have some pros in the midst of the cons.

For many Westerners, the idea of an arranged marriage is just so totally "foreign", that the pros and cons of the situation are never even considered. Most have been taught that the path to marriage involves long periods of dating and attempting to "fall in love" with another person before committing to marriage. Arranged marriages however, are somewhat common in many parts of the world, and surprisingly, it is also very successful.

Now don't get me wrong, while an arranged marriage certainly won't work for everyone... just like "love matches" don't, there are some very real advantages you may have never considered. So before you completely discard the idea as being old-fashioned, consider a few things you may have never thought about.

People who live in countries where arranged marriages are very common understand the pitfalls of this type of matchmaking, but they also recognize the benefits that such partnerships can provide. One of the biggest reasons that arranged marriages are often successful is that these partnerships are created between people who have similar ethnic, religious, social, and cultural backgrounds. You may be surprised to find out that arranged marriages are still common in Western countries where the children of immigrants hope to meet someone with a similar upbringing that will allow them to continue in their cherished cultural traditions.
Personalized wedding items available even for arranged marriages
There are also ethnic and religious communities where the introduction of outsiders is frowned upon, such as Orthodox Jewish communities and areas heavily populated by Greek immigrants, where arranged marriage is seen as a way to ensure that the culture or faith is continued. The same theory holds among African couples who enter into arranged marriages.

Another fact that many people may find surprising is that according to arranged marriage statistics, these unions have a far lower divorce rate than marriages between people based solely on romantic love. There are a number of reasons for this phenomenon, including the compatibility of cultural and religious traditions which I have already mentioned. Members of cultures where these types of marriages are common are often very close-knit, and the couples receive a very high level of support that is often not present in traditional marriages. In addition, arranged marriages normally occur between individuals who have a similar social and financial status; as any couple who has been married for more than a week can attest to, this can lead to much fewer arguments than less similarly paired couples.

If you ask enough couples who are engaged in arranged marriages you will find that they also feel that the love between themselves (wife and husband) grows over time and becomes stronger after facing the challenges that married couples face. The experiences that other couples may have had during a dating and courtship period is experienced by them together as a married couple. Not having an "out" means they have to work through it together and they end up growing as a married couple from such experiences.
Portrait of Girl Riding Home from Market Near Tessenei, Eritrea
Now to be sure, there are some negatives when it comes to arranged marriages as well. Because of the potential for human error (in the matchmakers), some individuals find themselves married to a highly unsuitable partner. For various reasons - cultural, religious, and otherwise - it can often be more difficult to leave an arranged marriage due to the cultural and familial expectations that are often present.

There are also cultures that use arranged marriage as a way of oppressing women, pressuring them to enter into marriage at a young age before they are able to develop independently... and this is totally not cool. Though not part of any verifiable arranged marriage statistics, one of the main aspects of arranged marriages that a lot of people point out as a con is that most individuals would like to experience the highs and lows of romantic love.

While arranged marriage statistics show that this institution has both pros and cons, the suitability of an individual for arranged marriage depends on many factors. Although arranged marriage may never become common among Westerners, the success of these unions should be considered by those who are accepting of it and hoping to find someone to spend their own forever with.
Return from Arranged Marriage Statistics to Types of Marriage Return from Arranged Marriage Statistics to African Wedding Home Page

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Arranged Marriage Statistics - Marriage Patterns In Africa

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Arranged marriage statistics vary depending on who you ask or the sources you reference. Arranged marriages are just one of many marriage patterns found among African wedding traditions. I know this is going to sound a bit controversial but contrary to popular belief, arranged marriages do have some pros in the midst of the cons.

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Does Your Web Site Pass the CRAAP Test?
This one is very unique from the other, this one is focused one girl. The article is her story about her life and struggle and details.All about her thoughts, feelings, emotions. It talks about all that would have changed and been taken from her like how she had to stop her schooling even though she did not want too and she voiced the stop her father. Her sent her away to boarding school, To this day she is so happy and thanks God for his grace daily. This is one of the rare cases seeing her this happy and not being forced. Sure it was not easy people to her father he was making the wrong choice and had things to say but she toughed it out and glad she made the right decision.There is not bias in this article because it is a testimony how can she not give her opinion on her own life. This was printed throughout an organization trying to stop child marriage from girls.

MAIMUNA’S STORY, NIGERIA

Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? 19 sept, 2013

Has the information been revised or updated? no

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic?currenrt

Are the links functional? yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? yes

Who is the intended audience? women anf peol arould the world

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? some

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Maimuna(Maimuna’s story was shared by Girls Not Brides member Girl Child Concerns)

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they?no

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? This is a testmony she herself lived this story out

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? mo

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source?.org

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? her own experience

Is the information supported by evidence? yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed? yer

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge? from personal knowledge

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? no

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? no

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade? to inform and teach and perusade

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? fact

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial? no

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? There are personal, cultural, and mabye some politcal bias

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Maimuna's story was shared by Girls Not Brides member Girl Child Concerns

Where I am from, education is disregarded by so many. Everyone wants to be successful, drive flashy cars, wear the most expensive clothes and carry the latest phones. But I believe that education is essential for everyone; it is education that helps people to earn respect and recognition.

In my village, which is in Kaduna State in northern Nigeria, hawking is seen as more productive than educating a child. Kids are married off at a very early age, too. You will see a 12 year old who already has a baby and is tied down with so many responsibilities.

In my community, if a parent allows their female child to reach the age of 15 in the house, they are seen as irresponsible and their children will be insulted. At 15, single girl is considered a disappointment because all of her friends are married. No man in the village will want to marry her.

The only girl in school

I was 14 years old when our village school re-opened. Most parents only sent their male children. But my dad had made up his mind to do whatever it took to send his children to school because he had dropped out when he was very young. I was the only girl in the whole school.

With time, my friends started developing interest. Most of them joined because they found it a way to escape chores and others were impressed by the changes they saw in me. Registration was free so anyone could join the school. As for my mum, she only allowed me to go to school because my dad said so. Every morning she gave me stuff to sell when I got to school.

My teacher noticed my interest in studies. He checked my work and corrected me when I was wrong. Anytime he didn't see me in school, he'd come all the way home and take me on his bike to school because he didn't want me to lose interest like others did.

By the time I reached my sixth year of primary school, all of my friends had been married off and my relatives kept pressuring my dad to marry me off too. They said: sending me to school was a bad decision because "Educated children end up spoilt and irresponsible". But he refused.

My dad, school and training have helped make my dreams come true

One day after I completed primary school, my father asked my cousins and my brothers and sisters what plans we had for the future. I was sure that I didn't want marriage yet so I spoke out. I told him I wanted to continue my studies to university level. He was impressed by my ambitious response and gave his word to support me even though we didn't have the money.

Three years into secondary school, with no friends but my Dad, bearing long walks to school and back, hardship, hunger, and no money, I almost gave up. But Girl Child Concerns helped me. They helped pay for my school fees and books and gave me life skills training too. My dad and I have decided that any time I come back home for holidays, I will teach my younger relations, married women and other youths who are interested in the things I have learnt at school, including Islamic knowledge.

Many people are impressed by this action I have taken, and wish they chose school over marriage. My sisters say that once they got married, it's the same routine all the time: chores, babies and all with no money to take care of themselves. The women I teach tell me that they wish they had had the chance to go to school, even for a day.

Others, especially my relatives, are still against it. Whenever I come back for the holidays they look at me in pity and say: "oh maimuna, so this is the path you have chosen for yourself". Well, "idan ba'a yi sharan masallaci ba 'a yi na kasuwa" meaning- one day, in the process of getting western knowledge, I will end up with an unwanted pregnancy. Their words hurt me but I refuse to give up.

When I finish my studies I want to improve health in my community

I have chosen to study health. My community has a large population and an unending problem of early marriage, which means children are born every day. But there is only one hospital, with 6 wards and few attendants. It's more like a pharmacy or clinic because only minor injuries can be treated. For most problems, they just prescribe panadol, drips and injections, without finding out what the patient's problem is.

Lives are at risk, and that touches my heart. When I finish my studies I will go back to my village and make a change. To help with the reconstruction of the hospital; treat as many people as possible, assist the pregnant, old and helpless. I believe that with good health we can all work to achieve our dreams. This is the goal I have set for myself and by God's grace nothing will stop me from achieving it.

I would like to use this as an opportunity to advise or plead any parent who is reading this to allow their children, especially girls, to go to school. Those who have been lucky to go to school should please try to share the knowledge they have acquired with siblings, friends, whoever they can reach out to. We should recognise that "the best gift any parent can give to their child is education".

VIDEO: Maimuna's story in her own words: Maimuna story

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Maimuna's story, Nigeria - Girls Not Brides

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Maimuna's story was shared by Girls Not Brides member Girl Child Concerns Where I am from, education is disregarded by so many. Everyone wants to be successful, drive flashy cars, wear the most expensive clothes and carry the latest phones. But I believe that education is essential for everyone; it is education that helps people to earn respect and recognition.

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Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted? November 26, 2017

Has the information been revised or updated? No

Is the information current or out-of date for your topic? Current

Are the links functional? Yes

Relevance:The importance of the information for your needs.

Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Yes

Who is the intended audience? Readers that want to know a story of a girls being sold into marriages

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)? Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Gethin Chamberlain

Are the author's credentials or organizational affiliations given? If yes, what are they? Freelance photojournalist

What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? He travles different places to cover stories and takes pictures of things he discovers.

Is there contact information, such as a publisher or e-mail address? No

Does the URL reveal anything about the author or source? No

examples: .com .edu .gov .org

Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the informational content.

Where does the information come from? Malawi

Is the information supported by evidence? Yes

Has the information been reviewed or refereed?  Yes

Can you verify any of the information in another source or from personal knowledge?  Yes

Does the language or tone seem biased and free of emotion? Kind of

Are there obvious errors (spelling, grammar, etc.)? No

Purpose: The reason the information exists.

What is the purpose of the information? to inform? teach? sell? entertain? persuade? Inform, Teach

Do the authors/sponsors make their intentions or purpose clear? Yes

Is the information fact? opinion? propaganda? Fact

Does the point of view appear objective and impartial?Yes

Are there political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional, or personal biases? Yes

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This article presents that the fact of the climate changes in the community affects how many girls get forced into marriage. In this article its main focus is about a young girl's story on how her parents sold her because a flood swept through the community and flooded her parents crops. So her parents sold her in order to keep them alive. “We do not have detailed figures, but I would say 30% to 40% of child marriages in Malawi are due to the floods and droughts caused by climate change." This is saying that due to the climate changes girls are more highly to get sold into marriages.

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It was the flood that ensured that Ntonya Sande's first year as a teenager would also be the first year of her married life. Up to the moment the water swept away her parents' field in Kachaso in the Nsanje district of Malawi, they had been scraping a living. Afterwards they were reduced to scavenging for bits of firewood to sell.

So when a young man came to their door and asked for the 13-year old's hand in marriage, the couple didn't think about it for too long, lest he look elsewhere. Ntonya begged them to change their minds. She was too young, she pleaded. She didn't want to leave. But it was to no avail. Her parents sat her down and spelled it out for her: the weather had changed and taken everything from them. There was not enough food to go around. They couldn't afford another mouth at the table.

That night she lay down in bed for the first time with the man she had never seen before and followed the instructions of her aunt, who had coached her on the important matter of sex. Ten months later, she gave birth to their first daughter.

Around 1.5 million girls in Malawi are at risk of getting married because of climate change. That's a huge number

Everyone has their own idea of what climate change looks like. For some, it's the walrus struggling to find space on melting ice floes on Blue Planet II. For others, it's an apocalyptic vision of cities disappearing beneath the waves. But for more and more girls across Africa, the most palpable manifestation of climate change is the baby in their arms as they sit watching their friends walk to school. The Brides of the Sun reporting project, funded by the European Journalism Centre, set out to try to assess the scale of what many experts are warning is a real and growing crisis: the emergence of a generation of child brides as a direct result of a changing climate.

And time and again, in villages from the south of Malawi to the east coast of Mozambique, the child brides and their parents told an increasingly familiar story. In recent years they had noticed the temperatures rising, the rains becoming less predictable and coming later and sometimes flooding where there had not been flooding before. Families that would once have been able to afford to feed and educate several children reported that they now faced an impossible situation.

None of the villages had any way of recording the changes scientifically, or indeed felt any urge to do so. All they knew was that the weather had changed and that where they used to be able to pay for their girls to go through school now they couldn't. And the only solution was for one or more daughters to get married.

Sometimes it was the parents who made the decision. For the good of the rest of the family, a daughter had to be sacrificed. She would be taken out of school and found a husband, one less mouth to feed. Sometimes it was the girl herself who made the decision and forced it upon her parents. Unhappy, hungry, she hoped that a husband might be the answer.

Carlina Nortino (main image, first left) sits with her husband, Horacio, in the dry sand that is all that is left of the river that once flowed past the village of Nataka in the Larde district of Nampula province, on the east coast of Mozambique. From the ground, there is nothing to see of the river. But a drone camera sent up to hover above reveals the ghost of the river, a darker line of green growth winding its way across the plain.

Carlina is 15, Horacio 16. They married when she was 13, two years after the river disappeared, she says.

"I remember when I saw people here fishing. I used to sell the fish, I took it from the fishermen and went to sell it to the village. There was water everywhere. I remember seeing Horacio with the other fishermen. But without rain, the fish died."

Her family used to harvest as many as 20 50kg bags of cassava. Today it is down to one or two bags. She blames the lack of rain.

Horacio looks across to where the river once ran. "I can't fish any more because the fish don't have water any more. The water disappeared. Now I do agriculture. Before, the rain started in September and came regularly until March. Now the rain only comes in January and February and that's it."

Carlina had dreamed of becoming a midwife: school was the most important part of her life. "It was never my desire to get married at that young age. I wanted to go to school. But I was forced to by my father. The family didn't have enough food to survive. So my father accepted the proposal because he couldn't support me to go to school."

She give birth to their first child, a boy, earlier this year. There were problems from the start. The family could not afford to go to a hospital with an incubator and the child died. "I am sure that if my father and my husband weren't that poor, my son would be alive," she says.

It wasn't his choice to marry her off, says her father, Carlitos Camilo. The 49-year-old used to support his family through fishing and farming. Then the weather changed and there was no more fish. "If I was able to feed my children, I wouldn't have pushed her to get married so young. Look at my other daughters, they grew up, they went to school, they got married at a normal age."

In 2015 the United Nations Population Fund estimated that 13.5 million children would marry under the age of 18 in that year alone - 37,000 child marriages every day - including 4.4 million married before they were 15. Across the whole of Africa, Unicef warned in 2015 that the total number of child brides could more than double to 310 million by 2050 if current trends continue.

There are many reasons for children marrying young. In some societies, it is regarded as simply practical; when children reach puberty, sexual behaviour starts to carry with it the risk of pregnancy. Elsewhere, poverty is the driver: when parents cannot afford to feed several children, it tends to be the girls who have to go.

But set against that is a growing awareness of the issue and a stated desire by governments to tackle it. Malawi made it illegal to marry below the age of 18 in 2015 and wrote it into its constitution this year. The rate of child marriage should be falling. Yet it persists. In Mozambique the number of child brides is actually rising as a result of the growing population. Something else has entered the equation.

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Little girls fetch water in Kachaso village, Nsanje district, Malawi. Extreme poverty in the region may compel them to marry before they're ready.

The new factor is climate change, says Mac Bain Mkandawire, executive director of Youth Net and Counselling, which campaigns for the rights of women and children from its base in Zomba, Malawi.

"We do not have detailed figures, but I would say 30% to 40% of child marriages in Malawi are due to the floods and droughts caused by climate change," he says. There are no detailed figures, he explains, because no one has previously thought to connect the two issues and to ask the right questions.

"Given that there are about 4 or 5 million girls at risk of getting married in Malawi, around 1.5 million girls are at risk of getting married because of climate change related events. That is a huge number."

The published figures may underestimate the scale of the problem because many marriages are informal affairs, not officially recorded. Often they are simply an agreement between two families, or if there are no parents then between the boy and the girl themselves. Sometimes a small dowry is paid by the husband or his family.

That's how it was for Filomena Antonio. She was 15 when 21-year-old Momande Churute approached her father, Antonio, and offered him 2,000 Mozambican meticals (£25) to marry his daughter.

Antonio Momade Jamal is 50. He has lived in Moma in Nampula province, all his life. He started fishing in 1985 when it was still a profitable business. Back then, buyers used to come from the city of Nampula to compete for the catch. Then the weather started to change.

"We see that it's too hot. We talk about that and we all agree that it's difficult to catch enough fish because of these high temperatures," he says. "In the areas where we used to go, the sea level is rising and the waves are much stronger."

He thought Filomena too young to marry but he felt he had little choice and when Momande offered to support her to stay in school, he agreed. He says he is not the only one.

"I've seen other neighbours who, because they are struggling, let their daughters get married. I have five other kids who go to secondary school. I have two other daughters, one of 13, another of 11. If a man came to ask for their hand, I would think about it, I would consider it. This man could help me support not only my daughter, but also help my other kids continue their education."

Filomena sits next to him, listening. She appears to have accepted her fate as long as it means she can go off to study in the city. She wants to be a nurse.

"We met here in the neighbourhood and he asked me to be with him," she says, indicating Momande. "I liked him. I thought he was a beautiful man."

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Its course still visible from the air, the river in Nataka, Larde district, Mozambique was a vital source of fish and water for irrigation until the rains became unreliable and the river dried up.

She told him he had to ask her father's permission. "My father accepted because he had poor conditions, so he believed that my husband could support me to go to school. I accepted because my father allowed me to. Since my father is poor, I thought I would get married so that my husband would help me. I believe that if my father had kept doing well with the fishing, he wouldn't have accepted the proposal because then he could afford my education, the school fees, my books."

Mozambique is one of the world's poorest countries, with almost 70% of its 28 million people living below the poverty line. It is particularly vulnerable to climate change: the Netherlands Commission for Environmental Assessment warns that "climate-related hazards such as droughts, floods and cyclones are occurring with increasing frequency".

The legal age of marriage is 18 (16 with parental consent) but still Mozambique has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with nearly one in two girls married by the age of 18 and one in seven by 15. The highest rates of child marriage are found in the northern provinces, including Nampula, which also has the highest number of adolescent pregnancies.

Fatima Mussa is 16, and nine months pregnant. She hadn't really wanted to get married. On the other hand, her father could no longer afford to keep her. She married 18-year-old Priorino Antonio last year when she was 15 after he approached her father in the village of Nataka, in Nampula province, and offered him 2,000 meticals. There was no ceremony.

"My father said 'I would have never considered allowing my daughter to marry now, because she is young. But she will marry because I don't have enough money to send her to secondary school.' I didn't want to get married at such a young age, but I didn't know what to do, since I couldn't go to school. So I saw an opportunity to marry someone who could maybe improve my life a little bit."

Across the border in Malawi, nearly half the country's girls are married by the age of 18 and nearly one in 10 by age 15, leaving Malawi ranked by Unicef as the 11th worst country in the world for child marriage. The legal age of marriage was raised to 18 in 2015 but there have been no reports of any prosecutions.

Poverty is the key factor, increasingly driven by climate change. The International Monetary Fund says that 70% of the 19 million population live below the poverty line, and 25% live in extreme poverty: "Considering that a significant number of the non-poor in rural areas are highly vulnerable to weather shocks, the poverty rate is - if anything - expected to increase due to the impact of recent floods and drought."

For Lucy Anusa, it was the drought of 2016 that tipped her over the edge. She was 14, the youngest of three sisters living with their farmer parents in Namalaka, near the southern end of Lake Malawi, when the drought laid waste to their crops.

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Lucy Anusa, now a 15-year-old mother, has returned to live with her family near Lake Malawi.

"I met this man who proposed to get married. I had to accept despite the fact that my parents kept telling me good things about education. But I opted for marriage given the way things were at home."

Her parents were unhappy, but she was too stubborn. Only when she became pregnant and the husband turned her out of their home did she start to regret her decision.

Now 15, she gave birth to their daughter earlier this year. "My mother had to welcome me back. But she kept reminding me: 'My daughter, I told you about this. You are too young for marriage. You have a lot of challenges when you go into marriage so young.'"

The changes in the weather are wrong-footing farmers, says Amos Mtonya from Malawi's department of climate change and meteorological services. "When it starts to rain, they immediately start planting. But then, three weeks later, they realise that everything they planted is dry," he says. "So to some, giving away their girl child can be a relief. It can also help the husband's family, since it gets someone to assist with the household chores. Of course tradition plays its role, but climate change will encourage people to get married early."

The government's own report on the 2015 floods listed child marriage as one of the side effects, a view shared by the anti-child marriage campaign group Girls Not Brides. "If we don't act now we risk another generation of childhoods being lost," says its executive director Lakshmi Sundaram.

Maliya Mapira dropped out of school because a teacher got her pregnant. She was 15 at the time. Her parents are tobacco farmers and the worsening harvests meant they were living hand to mouth. When they discovered who the father was, they wanted Maliya to marry him. "But along the way the teacher was unable to support me, not even the baby. If my parents could have supported me, I would have preferred to continue with education rather than get married. But I didn't want to put pressure on them. So I just decided to get married to this man to survive."

But marriage has changed little for her. She and tobacco farmer Maliki Hestone, trying to raise her six-month-old son, Bashiru Akim, face the same problems her parents failed to overcome. "Sometimes, because of the floods, the crops get washed away. At the end of the day, we get very little harvest from it," she says. "I don't want to have more children because we are struggling taking care of the one I have. It would just make things more difficult."

Five hundred miles away, in the courtyard of a house on the edge of Moma, Majuma Julio is stirring a pot of maize, preparing lunch for husband, Juma Momade, who is holding their year-old daughter, Fatima, on his lap.

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Majuma Julio, now 17, married at 15 and has a daughter nearly two: 'I don't blame anyone. The weather just changed.'

The couple married two years ago when Majuma was 15 and Juma was 19. It's not what she wanted, Majuma says. But she was staying with an uncle, a farmer, who was paying to support her through school. The weather changed and there was no more money; marriage was the only solution.

"It was because of the sun. There was too much sun and the rain was not falling enough. His production started to decrease three years before the marriage," says Majuma. "It used to rain for two months, but after a while it started coming less and less. I don't blame anyone. The weather just changed. My uncle called me and informed me that there was a man who wanted to marry me. I accepted. I didn't like the idea but I just accepted because I wanted to study."

Majuma knew that marriage would mean children. But Juma had promised to support her. "Juma and the imam came to my uncle's house, they did the ceremony and we were married. I am all right now. I feel better than when I was in my uncle's house because my husband treats me well, I keep going to school, there's no problem.

"I won't let my daughter get married at 15 years old. She has to study."

Up the coast from Moma, administrator Brigi Rupio looks out across the wide blue expanse of the Larde river. "When I arrived here in 2014, there was a house right next to the river," he says, pointing to where the bank is being undercut by the current. "But in 2015, there were severe floods that destroyed houses and increased the level of the river. Then there was drought. We had areas where we used to produce rice. But because of the dry spells, it's not possible any more. The weather is changing. Even those who cannot read or write can notice that."

The young girls taken out of school to marry early can attest to that.

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Why climate change is creating a new generation of child brides

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It was the flood that ensured that Ntonya Sande's first year as a teenager would also be the first year of her married life. Up to the moment the water swept away her parents' field in Kachaso in the Nsanje district of Malawi, they had been scraping a living.

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Currency: The timeliness of the information.

When was the information published or posted?  July 29th 2016

Has the information been revised or updated? No

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Are the links functional? Yes

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Does the information relate to your topic or answer your question? Yes

Who is the intended audience? Readers that wants to know about a person’s story of eing sold into marriage

Is the information at an appropriate level (i.e. not too elementary or advanced for your needs)?  Yes

Have you looked at a variety of sources before determining this is one you will use? Yes

Authority: The source of the information.

Who is the author/publisher/source/sponsor? Robyn Dixon

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What are the author's qualifications to write on the topic? I don’t know but the fact that she did do an interview with the girl.

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This article presents that a girl was sold into marriage for cows. Well that is what you get from the title. This article is about a girl who her uncle, father, and brother sold her for cows because they needed cows. When she refused to be married they did horrible things. "So her father beat her. Her brother did worse: He needed the cows she would bring so he could marry the girl he wanted. So he took his machete, and slashed her in her throat". This shows that her family did what it had to take in order to actually change her mind. This article also focuses on other stories that had happened in the country.

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When the girl was 16, her uncle told her he was taking her to the family village.

Excited about the trip, she packed the few things she had. She thought the plan was to meet relatives and see the birthplace of her father, who died when she was 10.

"My uncle needed cows," she explained.

Independence for South Sudan in 2011 brought widespread hopes for prosperity, an end to years of civil war and rudimentary rights for the new country's 11.3 million people. But little of that has materialized.

A wave of killings and sexual assaults has accompanied a new outbreak of fighting, and much of the nation remains trapped in deep poverty. Though South Sudan's assembly even before independence passed a law in 2008 limiting the marriage age to 18 and over, it is rarely enforced, particularly in rural areas.

Roughly 17% of girls marry before they are 15, and nearly a quarter marry between 15 and 17, according to the government's last survey in 2010. The vast majority of those marriages are thought to be families trading their daughters for cows.

The bride price is typically 20 to 40 cows, each worth up to $500. A girl who is seen as beautiful, fertile and of high social rank can bring as many as 200 cows.

The United Nations, which says the country has the world's fifth highest prevalence of child marriage, has attacked the practice as a violation of human rights, a serious impediment to literacy and a major cause of persistent poverty.

But attempts to wipe it out have faltered because under customary law here and elsewhere in Africa, women have fewer rights than men. The eight-year-old marriage law is resisted in many communities because it demands that impoverished rural families put at risk their biggest potential commodity: their daughters.

Once a girl is taken to village, there is no way back. Schools empty. Friends and sisters are suddenly gone. Some remain, kicking the dusty path to school, dreams still singing in their heads.

Some girls go meekly, melting away to a distant village to haul water and firewood, sweep, clean, wash, cook, give birth, work a lifetime.

When her father informed her that she would be married off to a man who was about 70, she explained, "I refused." She had fallen in love with another man when she was 13 - but the romance was unthinkable because he had no cows.

"If you want to kill me, kill me now because I don't want to go to a man I don't know," she said she told her father.

So he beat her. Her brother did worse: He needed the cows she would bring so he could marry the girl he wanted. So he took his machete, Keji said, and found her in the village square.

"He slashed me, and he cut my throat," she said. "The cut was deep, and I was taken to hospital."

Neither her brother nor father could be reached for an interview. The left side of her neck bears a scar about an inch long.

Keji tried running away to the capital of Juba, 53 miles and a three-hour drive on cratered dirt roads from her town of Terekeka on the Nile River. But her brother caught her and brought her back, she said.

Now 19, she was expecting to soon be married to the older man: "I don't have power. I'm finished. There's nowhere to go. There's nothing I can do."

To understand how women are valued here, consider the story of a 12-year-old girl killed by a hippo in a swamp a few years back. Thomas Buom, a 40-year-old canoe operator in the eastern town of Nyal, came upon the scene two hours after the attack.

"We were shocked, and we couldn't even talk," he recalled.

The tragedy of her death, however, wasn't the mere fact that a young girl had died. It was a sad situation, Buom explained, "because we lost that girl who would have been married off for cattle just three years later."

The price of a daughter in cows is determined in a negotiation between her father and would-be husband. Many daughters are married off to elderly suitors because those men tend to have the most cows.

Once girls are married, they are expected to work and bear many children, especially daughters, who are seen as assets to acquire more cattle. They obey their husbands or face violence.

Iklas Anur watched her older sister, Sumaya, suffer in an unhappy marriage after being sent to village.

She recounted the story under a shady tree in Terekeka as chickens and naked toddlers wandered in the dirt. Sumaya begged her father not to marry her off to an old man who had come calling. But the man had offered 30 cows, leaving her no say in the matter.

"My mother didn't say anything, but you could tell from her face how unhappy she was," Anur said. "But she had no voice. As a woman, there was nothing she could do. She just looked so tired and weary."

Sumaya fled back to her family, which promptly returned her to her husband. "The cows can't be given back," Anur said. "It's quite impossible."

Determined to avoid her sister's fate, Anur discovered a way to work within the system and found a man she liked who could pay 12 cows - enough to satisfy her father.

At 23, she still wishes she could have finished school instead of marrying. She knows she faces a lifetime of hard work.

Some families have shunned the tradition of collecting a bride price and instead have sent their daughters to school. But in a culture in which the value of a woman is measured in cows, those families are in the minority.

Just 7% of girls finish primary school, and fewer than 2% go to high school. Girls are three times more likely to die in childbirth than complete their studies, according to the U.N.

"As a girl, from a young age, you will be told to focus on being a good wife," said Lily Akol, a former deputy agriculture minister and one of the few women to earn a university degree. "Once you go and get educated, you are not seen as a good traditional African or South Sudanese girl."

Educated women are seen as arrogant, disrespectful and promiscuous, she said.

Phuong Nguyen, the UNICEF representative in South Sudan, said some families worry that sending girls to school exposes them to dangers such as sexual assault that could lower their value when it comes time to look for marriage offers.

For some girls, running away is the only escape.

In a shelter for vulnerable children in the capital, a 16-year-old girl told the story of how she had fled three years earlier after her father died and her brothers planned to marry her off.

Her mother secretly encouraged her to run. So one day, the girl pretended she was going to fetch water and never came back.

Like other girls who fled their families or their marriages, she spoke on condition that her name not be used, out of fear that she could be traced and returned.

She heard they married off her 13-year-old sister last year. "I cried for two days, and I couldn't even eat," she said.

Living in the shelter, lost from her family, she attends school and dreams of becoming the minister of education someday: "I'd make sure young girls are taken care of, and early marriage comes to an end so everyone can go to school."

A more likely fate for girls who fled to Juba are the brothels.

At one "lodge," as the establishments are known, the girls are as young as 13. One bony child with short hair, wearing a T-shirt and pants, could be mistaken for a boy.

Another was abandoned at age 9 and found on the street by a soldier. He sent the girl to live with his mother, then married her when she was 12. "Then I got his first child," she explained.

Now she is 23 and a widow, her husband killed in war three years ago. Their son lives with his grandmother.

Also here is the 19-year-old whose uncle took her to village three years ago to become the sixth wife of an elderly man.

The higher-ranking wives were constantly forcing her to fetch firewood and grind maize. "They all treated me like a child in their house," she recalled. "I didn't have enough food or clothing. They made me work so hard."

After less than a year, she fled and eventually wound up at the brothel. At first, she hoped she could stay there without having to sleep with men, but it doesn't work that way.

"I sell myself," she said. "It was a hard decision. I feel very uncomfortable. But I can get something to eat. I can dress myself with what I do. Some days I can go with only three men, and that's enough money."

She has vowed never to return to her husband, and her uncle has said he would kill her if she tried to return home.

Sometimes her life at the brothel feels so hard that when there are no customers, she just sleeps, to escape thinking at all.

Robyn Dixon and Sarah Hylton prepared this story as part of a fellowship with the International Women's Media Foundation.

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Child brides sold for cows: The price of being a girl in South Sudan

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When the girl was 16, her uncle told her he was taking her to the family village. Excited about the trip, she packed the few things she had. She thought the plan was to meet relatives and see the birthplace of her father, who died when she was 10.