One way to break this cycle is to give child brides access to contraception as soon as they get married. If we support the child brides of today, it is possible to break the inter-generational cycle in our generation. Ending child marriage requires a co-ordinated effort, in which the health sector plays a crucial role both in the prevention of child marriage and in providing services for the existing child brides. The land holdings of today’s child brides are far less than that of my parents because Ethiopia’s high population makes land increasingly scarce. Under the Smart Start programme, co-designed with and for child brides, Population Services International/Ethiopia has served more than 35 000 child brides a year in 28 districts of four regions and it is still growing.

Source: Ethiopian News April 17, 2019 22:06 UTC