You can help more girls affected by conflict access the practical skills, confidence, knowledge, and support they need to pursue their goals.
Donate by October 11 and it will be matched to enroll twice as many girls into our life-changing program!
International Day of The Girl
End child marriage. Invest in girls' rights. Invest in her future.
Turning Hope into Possbility
Every girl deserves the freedom to grow up, make her own choices, and imagine a future on her own terms.
Even in conflict-affected places where the odds are stacked against them, girls continue to dream, learn, create, and make plans for what comes next. And with the right support, they can turn those dreams into reality.
This International Day of the Girl, we’re joining the call to end child marriage and invest in girls’ rights by helping more girls affected by conflict build the skills, confidence, and opportunities they need to shape their own futures.
It's time to invest in their potential, their choices, and everything they can become.
Millions of Girls Are Forced to Grow Up Too Fast
According to UNICEF’s 2026 estimates, an estimated one in five girls across the world were married before age 18, representing approximately 650 million women and girls alive today who were married in childhood.
These numbers represent millions of individual girls, each with her own hopes, talents, and plans for the future that were cut short.
But progress is possible, and it's happening now.
An estimated 68 million child marriages have been averted over the past 25 years, demonstrating that investment in girls' education, rights, and opportunities can make a difference.
Investing in Girls Means Protecting Their Futures
At Women for Women International, we believe girls affected by conflict deserve the knowledge and support to make informed choices about their lives and shape their own futures.
Through our Adolescent Girls Program, girls develop practical and vocational skills, build economic knowledge, strengthen their confidence, and access support for their wellbeing—all while learning more about their rights and the options available to them.
After two years of programming across four countries, we're already seeing meaningful changes:
- 96% of participants knew their rights at the end of the program, compared with 58% at the start.
- 85 was the average self-efficacy score at the end of the program, compared with 48 at baseline.
- 72% correctly identified the legal marriage age at the end of the program, up from 58%.
- 62% were setting aside personal or household savings at the end of the program, compared with 28% at baseline.
- 37% were involved in household financial decisions at the end of the program, compared with just 12% at baseline.
As Sharstan, an Adolescent Girls Program participant in Iraq, shared:
“The session helped me understand the negative consequences of early marriage and the importance of first investing in myself by completing my education or developing my skills.”
When we invest in girls, we invest in their ability to make choices about their lives, and in the futures they imagine for themselves.
Meet the Girls Building Hope
What happens when a girl is given the opportunity to reimagine her future?
She tells us herself.
Throughout this campaign, we're sharing stories from girls participating in the Adolescent Girls Program across the countries where we work.
Their circumstances and dreams may be different, but each story reminds us that girls are not defined simply by the challenges they face. They are defined by what they imagine is possible.
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Keep Listening. Keep Investing. Keep Believing in Girls.
Throughout October, we'll be sharing more stories, voices and hopes from girls participating in the Adolescent Girls Program.
Follow along and hear what girls have to say about their futures.
Her Rights. Her Choices. Her Future.
Ending child marriage requires more than laws. It requires investment in girls, and it requires listening to girls themselves.
The UN's 2026 International Day of the Girl campaign calls on the world to end child marriage and invest in girls' rights, highlighting solutions including keeping girls in school, expanding access to health and protection services, challenging harmful gender norms, and supporting girls' leadership.
For girls affected by conflict, these investments are especially important as conflict, displacement and economic insecurity can compound the barriers girls face.
When we invest in girls, we invest in the possibilities of their futures.
Every girl deserves the opportunity to grow up free from child marriage, make decisions about her own life, and imagine a future shaped by her own choices.