YWCA NSW Blog

An inspiring day today with voices as diverse and meaningful as Mary Robinson, former head of state in the Republic of Ireland and now head of the Mary Robinson Foundation on Climate Justice, to Nancy Kapembwa from Zambia, a young women fighting for human rights in her country.  From Dr Michelle Bachelet, Executive Director of UN Women to the Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe.

A lot of discussion about women and children living with HIV and AIDs, a lot of debate about harnessing the power of our young women in communities and in the later breakout session that I was in, heartfelt stories and fiery passion about the need to end child marriage. Child marriage is considered to be any marriage where the girl (or boy but most usually the girl) is forced into marriage before she is 18 to someone usually much older than her.

There are 20 thousand child marriages a day globally and 12 is the most common age. They usually have their first babies at 13 and are forced to leave school. They have no voice for themselves and no-one to stand up and defend them. Not only do they never get an education but they experience a whole range of health and medical issues from giving birth so early…many die unnecessarily.

The debate ranged from asking where the mothers are in all this to what role NGOs and government play in helping to end these harmful traditional practices. In many communities they are considered to be normal practice but Mary Robinson was correct when she said that change can start with us and quoted Deepak Chopra who said “It is little more than changing our ideas about what is normal”.