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30,000 are married off. 5 000 become mothers before their 15th birthday 10,000 are genitally mutilated. Every day. The inequality that affects girls worldwide is enormous. Your Corporate can make a difference by supporting Erikshjälpen's girls' project.
By preventing and combating female genital mutilation, the negative consequences of menstruation, child marriage and trafficking, and promoting girls' right to education, Erikshjälpen works to give girls power over their lives and the conditions to achieve their dreams. We give girls knowledge of their rights, the courage to make their voices heard and advocacy work to create positive changes in attitudes in society.
Menstruation should not cost a girl her education or freedom. But in Kajiado and Makueni Counties in Kenya, many girls lack the means to manage their periods with dignity. Their families cannot afford to prioritize the purchase of menstrual protection.
Sometimes there are no school toilets and no opportunity for girls to change their sanitary pads during the day. Due to taboos, girls also do not receive sufficient and accurate information about menstruation and sexual health.
- When girls in my class talk about sanitary pads, I think they must be very rich. I'm ashamed to tell them what I use when I have my period. Sometimes I lie to my mom and say I'm sick, so I don't have to go to school and be afraid that the blood will show," says a 14-year-old girl.
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is another major problem in the region, even though the practice is illegal in Kenya. The practice causes much suffering and disables many girls. Often, FGM is also the first step towards child marriage.
Both menstruation and female genital mutilation lead to many girls dropping out of school. Erikshjälpen works, among other things, to educate girls about body development, Menstrual health and hygiene.
We provide girls with access to safe and durable sanitary protection and ensure that schools have safe toilets. We advocate and raise awareness among both children and adults about the negative consequences of female genital mutilation.
We also work to change perceptions of girls' worth and strengthen families' finances, so that parents can afford to send all their children - including girls - to school.
More than 40 million people are estimated to be trafficked today. It is a global industry with an annual turnover in the billions. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, children who are already living in vulnerable situations have become even more exposed, and the risk of them falling into forced marriages, trafficking and sexual exploitation is increasing.
Due to the former one-child policy in China, there is a high demand for wives from other countries, such as Cambodia and Laos.
Erikshjälpen works together with local partner organisations to stop child trafficking. The work includes several different types of interventions, such as increasing knowledge and awareness of trafficking in poor families where children are at risk, helping trafficking victims to return home, providing psychosocial support to affected children and their families, and pursuing legal processes so that traffickers are prosecuted and convicted.
The majority of children denied the right to go to school are girls. Taking girls out of school increases the risk of child marriage and other abuses.
Without education, girls' opportunities to become independent and influence their future are also limited. In one of the world's most climate-vulnerable areas, the Jamuna Delta in Bangladesh, portable schools have created new opportunities for girls.
In the delta, people live on sand islands that are affected by the flowing waters of the river. The islands can be completely worn down and disappear, leading families to move to new islands. There are hardly any municipal services on the islands and sending a girl to the mainland to go to school is unthinkable for most families.
But thanks to portable schools, both girls and boys are now getting an education. The schools can be dismantled in a matter of hours, packed onto a boat and moved with families when an island is flooded.
Solar panels provide electricity to the schools, enabling digital lessons for secondary school students, as it is difficult to recruit secondary school teachers in this remote area. In the past, many girls were married off early and had children in their teens.
Thanks to portable schools and awareness-raising, attitudes towards child marriage have started to change.
Published: 04 May 2023