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Mar 12, 2024,09:11am EDT
The UNICEF-supported pilot program seeks to help address rising child malnutrition — a growing concern as the country contends with drought, food insecurity and other crises.
Innovative approach lets families grow their own vegetables without soil — little water required
UNICEF works with partners to advance local solutions to the many problems vulnerable children face — like malnutrition caused by poor diet, often due to a lack of access to affordable nutritious foods.
In Ethiopia, UNICEF has helped launch a pilot program in hydroponic vegetable farming as a way to address child malnutrition while also enhancing the resilience of local food systems.
Hydroponic farming is the practice of growing crops without soil, which saves space. And while conventional methods require rainfall and irrigation, with hydroponic farming, very little water is required — which means plantings can thrive regardless of weather or season. “We can produce year round,” explains Behailu Abreha, founder and general manager of PLC, an agricultural concern in Mekelle and UNICEF’s partner on the project.
An innovation to help address food insecurity fueled by El Niño-driven drought
The new program is being implemented in Mekelle and in central and southern Tigray, where children and families have long suffered the impacts of violent and prolonged civil conflict.
Crop yields in Tigray, already severely depleted by drought following several failed rainy seasons, were wiped out yet again, this time by drought driven by El Niño, an increasingly damaging weather pattern associated with climate change.
“This kind of initiative will not only help prevent child malnutrition, it will enable families to grow vegetables at a low-cost,” UNICEF Deputy Executive Director Ted Chaiban said after getting a firsthand look at the project during a recent visit.
Members of 50 households have received training in hydroponic farming techniques to get them started cultivating vegetables without soil.
The Fight To End Child Marriage Comes To California
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Mar 9, 2024,09:09am EST
UNICEF USA is working with partners including Unchained at Last to end child marriage in the United States. Eleven U.S. states have already passed legislation banning marriage before the age of 18, with no exceptions. California could be next.
Child marriage is a child rights violation
Janette was only 14, a southern California ninth grader, when she was introduced to the 21-year-old man who would soon become her husband. Her mother “would have him come over and sleep on the couch. I thought, ‘Why is he here?’ Next thing I know, I’m at his place,” said Janette, now a 56-year-old activist working to end child marriage. “I know the truth now. She sold me.”
Child marriage — the formal marriage or informal union between a child under the age of 18 and an adult or another child — is an internationally recognized human rights violation and a global problem: an estimated 640 million girls and women alive today were married in childhood. Nearly half of the world’s child brides live in South Asia (45 percent) with the next largest share from sub-Saharan Africa (20 percent).
But child marriage also exists right here in the United States.
The minimum age to marry varies from state to state
Nearly 300,000 children, some as young as 10, were married in the U.S. between 2000 and 2018 — mostly girls wed to adult men, according to Unchained at Last, a survivor-led advocacy nonprofit dedicated to ending forced and child marriage in the U.S.
There is no federal law governing the legal age of marriage in the U.S. Laws vary from state to state, a patchwork of age limits from 15 to 18 that can be circumvented through various loopholes regarding parental consent or a judges’s decision. Several states — including California — have no minimum age at all.
Only 11 states have outlawed marriage before the age of 18, with zero exceptions
On March 7, 2024, Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill ending child marriage in the state of Washington, joining Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont.
In February 2024, California Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris introduced legislation to ban state-sanctioned marriage before the age of 18. “The U.S. considers marriage under the age of 18 to be a human rights abuse, yet, right here in the great state of California, children are still victims of forced child marriage,” Petrie-Norris said. “It is absolutely shocking, it is horrifying, and it is time we finally end this outrageous practice.”
The legal age of sexual consent is 18 in California
California’s age of sexual consent is 18. Sex with a child is a crime, either a misdemeanor or a felony depending on the age difference and the facts of the case — unless the perpetrator marries the child first. As Unchained at Last founder Fraidy Reiss, herself a survivor of forced marriage, told the Los Angeles Times, “If you have sex with a child in California, you can be prosecuted, but marrying a minor amounts to a ‘get out of jail free’ card.”
“If a man can go to prison for sleeping with an underage girl, then why is it allowable just because they’re married?” asked Janette. “It’s the same crime, just a piece of paper between them.”
Child brides are trapped in legal limbo
For girls under 18 trying to escape an abusive home life, child marriage may seem like a way out, but they can find themselves in “a horrible legal trap,” without the rights they need to extricate themselves from a bad situation, Reiss explained in an essay published in the Sacramento Bee.
In states that allow marriage before age 18, girls can marry but usually can’t get a divorce until they reach the legal age of adulthood, which is 18 in most states.
“Teens do not wake up on their 18th birthday with newfound maturity,” Reiss wrote. “Rather, they wake up with the rights of adulthood that are cruclal to escape a forced marriage: leaving home, entering a domestic violence shelter, retaining an attorney and independently bringing a legal action.”
The harmful effects of child marriage can last a lifetime
The longterm effects of child marriage are well documented. Girls who marry before 18 are more likely to experience domestic violence and less likely to stay in school. Adolescent girls who become pregnant face higher risks of eclampsia and other health conditions, and their babies face higher risks of low birth weight and preterm birth.
They also often experience the stigma associated with being a child bride. “I didn’t tell my story because people treated it like it was shameful,” said Janette, who said she has struggled with feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. “That’s why I got involved with Unchained. Seeing, oh my gosh, there’s people like me, that aren’t keeping the secret. They’re being verbal about this issue. I didn’t even realize that it was such as an issue until I got involved with Unchained.”
After marrying at 14, Janette became pregnant and had a baby boy. Two years later, the man she married disappeared with her toddler. “I didn’t see my son again for 15 years,” she said. “I never got to experience any of the high school stuff, the normal things girls go through. I’ve been in survival mode since I was 14. There was quite a bit of time when I was homeless. I slept in a garage. Being homeless and young is very scary, especially if you’re a female.”
Child marriage shouldn’t be an option
Janette eventually went on to graduate from high school and college, remarry and have two more sons. But she has an unequivocal message for lawmakers: “Don’t make child marriage a choice. If there’s a girl in need, they need to find out why. Why is somebody trying to marry her off? Marrying young shouldn’t be an option.”
Today, she is a dedicated activist, working with Unchained and sharing her story to prevent other girls from falling into the trap of child marriage. “I’m not sure how many of the child brides don’t have anyone else to turn to, like I didn’t,” she said.
Sarah Ferguson is the Senior Editorial Director at UNICEF USA. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times… Read More