Child Marriage is any formal marriage of informal union where one or both of the parties are under 18 years of Age. Each year, 12 Million girls are married before the age of 18, that is 23 girls every minute, nearly 1 every 3 seconds (Data collected by Girls Not Bride Organisation).
52% of girls in South Sudan are married before their 18th birthday and 9% are married before the age of 15.
According to UNICEF, South Sudan has the seventh highest prevalence rate of child marriage in the world. Therefore, Opportunities for South Sudan would like to bring into this contributive discussion on Child Marriage in South Sudan
Moderator:
Ms. Adeng Leek, she is a founder of Opportunities for South Sudanese Initiative currently working with the African Union Commission for 3 years. She previously advocated for women rights in Pibor, Juba and Wau, Youth and Peacebuilding advocate with Horn of Africa Leadership and Learning for Action, she is also a member of Mandela Institute for Development Studies (MINDS) and former Human Right Defender trained by Frontline Defender.
Panelist:
Mrs. Nyagoa Nyuon, is a Women’s Right Activist/Designer and Co-Founder of Catwalk to Freedom. She worked with Government of South Sudan between (2008-2011) at the Ministry of Investment and Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She owns a fashion brand call ” House of Bany” that promotes peace. She is also a founding member of #AnaTaban, youth peace campaign in 2016.
She as well Co-Founded Catwalk to Freedom an organisation which helps to protect girls who are at risk of being force into early marriage, through fashion, photography and film awareness.
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