Robyne Hayes is a photographer and researcher. Her recent priority within her work is with women, girls and child marriages.
The main driver for child marriages is poverty and lack of education. Women and girls who are forced into child marriages usually drop out of school and have no childhood. Most women and girls are looked upon as being nothing more than a potential mother.
130million girls are not in school and should be. Pregnancy is the leading cause of death for young girls and they usually end up in domestic violence.
What I learnt…
That the issue of child marriages is an increasing number and it is in need of help.
we take opportunities for granted and we need to give the girls a voice, by doing that we need to not only talk to the girls but talk to the mothers and community to give them space to explore and to spread their voice.
Giving the girls a voice can let them become something more than they were meant to be within that culture. However, we actually don’t ask what they want, since they have never experienced anything other than early marriages and poverty. That’s why we need to give them that experience and that opportunity.
