Child marriage remains a major global challenge. UNICEF estimates that 650 million girls and women alive today were married before their 18th birthday. Although progress has been made globally, UNICEF reports that child marriage remains particularly prevalent in sub-Saharan Africa, where 35 per cent of young women are married as children.
A UNICEF Nigeria country brief describes child marriage as common in Nigeria, with one in three girls marrying before age 18, and notes that the practice is particularly associated with economic hardship, insecurity, and limited access to education. Child marriage can interrupt education, limit economic opportunities, increase social isolation, and expose girls to greater risks of violence and health complications.
Behind these numbers are girls with hopes, abilities, and plans for their futures. In Plateau State, Nigeria, three adolescent girls learned that they had rights—and the power to influence decisions affecting them and other girls in their community. Instead of keeping that knowledge to themselves, they carried it beyond the classroom and into their community.
Nan’akyen Simon, 17, Halima Alliyu, 16, and Ruth Bulus, 17, who were participants in the WfWI Adolescent Girls Program (AGP) in Nigeria. After learning about child marriage, girls’ rights, protection, and the importance of speaking up when those rights are threatened, they put their knowledge into action. They mobilized other girls and organized an awareness walk through their community to raise awareness of early and forced marriage.
When Ruth saw girls as young as 13 years being married off and experiencing difficulties and abuse from their husbands and in-laws, she was afraid the same thing could happen to her, especially because of the financial challenges her family was facing. The sessions on early and forced marriage and developing an advocacy plan helped her understand that she did not have to remain silent about these issues. She learned that advocacy is about identifying a problem, understanding who has the power to influence it, developing a clear message, and taking action to bring about change.
As they continued getting trained about their rights and talked among themselves, they became more aware of the challenges facing girls in their community, especially early and forced marriage. The girls began asking themselves a question: If we now know this is a violation of a girl's rights, what can we do with that knowledge? Their answer was to act.
For Ruth, the lessons in the classes of the AGP changed the way she understood what it meant to be a girl. Before the training, she knew that early marriage could affect a girl's education and future. But she had not fully understood that girls have rights, including the right to be protected from harmful practices and to participate in decisions that affect their lives. She wanted other girls in the community to know this too.
Halima Alliyu was one of the girls who helped organize the awareness march with her classmates on 21 August 2026. At first, she felt nervous because speaking out about forced marriage was difficult, but she knew that staying silent would not help other girls in similar situations. Halima wanted to take part because her community often believes that girls do not need an education since they will get married anyway. As a result, some girls are forced to marry men they do not know or love, and these men are often much older. Sometimes, parents arrange these marriages to wealthy or influential families to build or maintain relationships based on wealth, social status, royal ties, or family friendships.
The march gave Halima and the other girls a real chance to take action and involve their community. They talked about the dangers and effects of early and forced marriage, encouraged people to discuss the issue openly, and shared messages about girls’ rights to education, safety, healthy relationships, and having a say in decisions that affect their lives.
The activity strengthened our confidence and advocacy skills while showing me that girls can play an active role in raising awareness, influencing conversations, and contributing to positive change in their communities. - Halima Alliyu
For Nan’akyen Simon, the awareness march was personal. She had watched girls in her community, some not even old enough for marriage, being forced into it by parents hoping to escape poverty. This motivated her to join her friends in raising awareness. Using the advocacy skills they had learned, the girls organized a community march to break the silence around early and forced marriage. Girls who saw the march would learn they had the right to say no and that help was available. As they marched, the girls shared helpline numbers and talked about the risks of early and forced marriage, such as leaving school, depression, and, in some cases, dying during childbirth.
Instead of just telling people that early and forced marriage is harmful, the girls wanted their march to show the community what a girl might lose and what she could gain if she stayed in school, learned new skills, and made her own choices about her future.
A session on developing advocacy skills and plans gave the girls the tools they needed to identify issues in their community and develop a plan to address them. They chose to focus on early and forced marriage because it affects so many girls around them. First, the girls were given a safe space to learn. They were encouraged to understand their rights, speak about the challenges they face, and build practical skills. From there, they identified a problem in their community and decided to take action. Three girls came together to speak as one. This shows why girl-led activities and programs are so important.
When adolescent girls have access to information, confidence, skills, and opportunities to participate, they can become powerful agents of change within their families, peer groups, and communities.
Nan’akyen, Halima, and Ruth are part of this change, making a difference through each conversation, classroom, and community they reach. Their story shows that a girl does not have to wait for someone else to speak for her. Sometimes, she just needs the chance to find her voice. When she does, she can help others find theirs too. Their march may have been brief, but they hope the discussion it began will last long after the event is over.
This is what investing in girls looks like. It is not just about creating programs for girls but also about creating opportunities for them to lead, organize, speak, and shape the conversations that affect their lives.