The Girl Child Struggles, part 1

Every week a young girl becomes victim of her cultures beliefs and traditions as she is given in marriage as early as 10 years old. Sometimes when the situation is even more desperate her age can become as young as five. She is the girl child in many third world countries and for reasons she is unable to understand at that young age, she is often sacrificed for family, tradition and greed.

As the world struggles to create development programs to address the concerns and conflicts of the girl child, it leaves a gaping hole in its reaches. The men who participate in these crimes against her are frequently ignored or forgotten. While we may be able to try and educate the girls, there are so many more that fall thru the gaps.

The vicious cycle begins with the violation of trust from the young girl’s male family, friends, neighbors, benefactors, sponsors, or even community leaders. She is often targeted in my ways, some thru marriage, some thru rape, and others through deceit from the lips of men who promise marriage but only leave them behind once impregnated for the next victim. Often she is cast aside to survive bearing a child so young and if she survives, struggles to figure out how to feed herself and her new child. School is no longer an option. Marriage becomes impossible because she has been defiled. She is only left to become a struggling single mom whose options are to repeat the same course of actions available to her: sell her girl child to survive or become someone’s personal slave. 

For those who are sold, it is often to sacrifice for the family. Her brothers need tuition to go to school or the mother needs food to survive the next year. For the ten year old in this picture, she is forced to leave school and convinced that she will love marriage. Her sacrifice will save the family from starvation and allow her brothers to go to school. She is sold for many things including cattle, oil, soap, flour, and sugar.

The cycle continues when the male child of these mothers are often neglected and unloved due to lack of time and desperate conditions. These children are often left alone to work or go hungry for food and love. When they grow up, they struggle to find love in the only place they know, emotional satisfaction at the expense of the girl child.  More and younger girls fall victims to the men who have not grown up with a loving family, home or mother. Instead, they grow up becoming the next generation of men who systematically and culturally destroy their own country, lives, women and freedom. 

The repercussions for this type of internal battles are many often unobserved which only serves to weakness the countries that allow for these practices.  Women are the backbones of every generation and help build the children who go out and develop the countries, change the world challenges, and allow for peace to prevail. However, when they are the ones attacked internally, the country’s infrastructure weakens leaving them vulnerable for global domination on many levels. Their natural resources are bought out from under them without any resistance. The government is sold to the highest bidder who often resides outside the country and there is often much chaos within. Roads are not fixed, no organized legal system in many areas exists, and corruption reigns in every area.  In certain industrial cities of these countries there is much migration for greener pastures. Many people leave home to go abroad for a better life and choice. Home becomes this new land in the first world countries where their girl child can grow with choices of whom they will marry and be educated to their level of desire. 

While the migration continues daily, the number of births of illegitimate children back home in the country origin continues to grow exponentially! More and more children are born without fathers who can love them, teach them and educate them appropriately. In fact, new schools are needed each year to accommodate the explosive growth of the Lorries of children these men leave behind. Often in some communities it is the work of one man with a plethora of destruction and devastation he leaves behind.

From Asia to Africa and beyond, the problem grows.

Will the real leaders of the communities please come forward?

Bridal Price Book for 10 year old's marriage
(above: 10 year old bride in pink tee shirt)