Wanda Montanelli - I'M Only A Child

A petition film

The success of "Difret the courage to change", the film produced in the US with a strong emotional and cultural impact, has not just happened overnight but is the result of many initiatives that preceded and followed the distribution of the work throughout the world. These include the essential initiative of the 1 October 2015, when Girls Not Brides launched #mylifeat15 , an international campaign calling on governments to make it a primary goal to put an end to child marriage by 2030.

Girls Not Brides, global meeting 2018

We celebrated reaching 1000 members with a Group photo at our Global Meeting. Photo credit: Graham Crouch/Girls Not Brides

In Kuala Lumpur, during the second Girls Not Brides global meeting, about a thousand organisations from over 70 countries gathered to discuss the issue of child marriage.

The event was overwhelming and participation strongly felt. The interventions, which focussed on achieving the goal of abolishing child marriage by 2030, developed future theories of commitment planning to work collectively at local, national, regional and global levels.

Given the encouraging results already obtained, the effective words of Lakshmi Sundaram, executive director of Girls Not Brides , opened up hopes of possible short and long term achievements of goals even more. Her report, published on the Girls Not Brides portal, highlighted the significant commitment on the part of all the partnership’s organisations:

"Members – wrote Lakshmi – have been able to effectively share learning, conduct joint advocacy, change local attitudes, influence national and regional strategies, leverage new resources, hold governments accountable and build South-South collaboration. However, for partnerships to thrive and have the greatest impact, they need to include a diversity of voices and be managed effectively".

Young people are key change-makers.

" During the global meeting – Lakshmi specified – youth activists shared examples of how their work has led to concrete changes in the lives of girls. It was clear that if we want to end child marriage, we have to empower youth and youth-led organisations and ensure they have the agency to make decisions about their present and future". And it is precisely the commitment of girls who have suffered and experienced child marriage that is one of the drivers of the global project, because, according to Lakshmi Sundaram, they "are amongst the most powerful advocates in efforts to end child marriage, but they need appropriate support to share their stories safely and effectively. They must also be involved in designing policies and programmes to address the issue.

This is why it’s critical that the global movement to end child marriage Girls Not Brides doesn’t just focus on prevention – we have to address the needs of married girls in a holistic manner. To this end we must address gender inequality – stated Lakshmi – it must be at the heart of everything we do, since such discrimination is the fundamental cause of child marriage. And it is important to involve men and boys who can be a key part of the solution to the problem. (…) However, we need to have the courage to discuss some of these difficult topics – including sexuality, social norms and power and race dynamics – openly and respectfully. We’re not going to make progress on ending child marriage if we’re not willing to take these conversations beyond the Global Meeting ”. 7 7 Lakshmi Sundaram, Ten takeaways from the Girls Not Brides Global Meeting – 11 July 2018;

Memory Banda: I’ll marry when I want

Memory’s story is called “ A warrior’s cry against child marriage ”.

I'll tell it to you because it’s very engaging and also fun to listen to. The video is posted on YouTube (with translations into 38 languages). Just enter the name Memory Banda into the search engine to find it.

I write "fun" because this girl really is a force of nature. She is able to describe with firmness, a sense of humour and courage the enormous problem of a marriage which they wanted to make her accept at all costs.

Her story takes place in Malawi, a country in East Africa. Read what the girl says:

“When I was 13 years old, I was told: ‘You are grown up, you have now reached the age when you're supposed to go to the initiation camp’. I was like: ‘What? I'm not going to go to the initiation camp’.

You know what the women said to me? ‘You are a stupid girl. Stubborn. You do not respect the traditions of our society, of our community’. (…)”

This teenager’s positive energy is exceptional, for not only did she manage to avoid her own marriage, but she fought to have laws passed, to interest public opinion and the institutions of her country. She’s organised sit-ins with her friends to get in touch with the relevant authorities to deal with the unfortunate problem of child brides.

Memory tells her story directly to a meeting:

This is her public speech:

“I'll begin today by sharing a poem written by my friend from Malawi, Eileen Piri. Eileen is only 13 years old, but when we were going through the collection of poetry that we wrote, I found her poem so interesting, so motivating. So I'll read it to you. She entitled her poem

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Ilaria Sesana , Le spose-bambine derubate del futuro [Child-brides deprived of their future] – Famiglia Cristiana, 05/08/2014;

Ibidem;

Child marriages in Mexico. The story of Itzel married at 14, Onerpo; A day in the life of Itzel, a 15-year-old, Girls Not Brides, 26 April 2017;

“I am Nujood, age 10 and divorced” by Nujood Ali and Delphine Minoui published on the 22 January 2009 by Michel Lafon;

Who is Malala Yousafzai? Nobel Peace Prize 2014, Public Sphere , 10 October 2014 ;

Roberto Vicario, Review of "Difret, the Courage to Change", Women’s emancipation, told with courage! Game Surf, 21 January 2015;

Lakshmi Sundaram, Ten takeaways from the Girls Not Brides Global Meeting – 11 July 2018;