“I’m afraid of tonight”
Can you imagine giving your 12 year old daughter away to an old man to get married? It is unthinkable right? Now, imagine what this must be like for the little girl herself…if the thought scares you, it should as this is the reality faced by tens of thousands of young girls each day living across the developing world. But it gets worse – each year about two million of these girls under the age of 15 will die giving birth. Even if they do survive this experience, for which their bodies are not ready, they often have zero say in the household and are not able to exercise any rights, such as the right to an education, health (and contraception), or any type of meaningful employment later in life.
It is clear that this has to stop.
To raise awareness of this terrible situation, DSW developed a hard-hitting campaign called „Heiraten ist kein Kinderspiel“ (Marriage is not child’s play) in the run up the G7 Summit. Spread over four weeks of intense media action such as the development of controversial ‘wedding invitation cards’ to key members of the German government and culminating with a public demonstration in Berlin on June 5th, the campaign was perhaps the most controversial action ever created by the Foundation. Highlights from the campaign include:
Protest in Berlin
Friday, June 5th, 18 young girls dressed in wedding attire and carrying protest cards, gathered in a popular tourist destination in the centre of Berlin. In 30 degree heat and burning sunshine, they called on the German Chancellor to take action and to bring hope to millions of trapped girls. This action caused quite a stir among local tourists and passers-by who, while at first confused by the action, were outraged that child marriages were still take place in the 21st century.
One of the key messages: „Als Kinderbraut wären Sie nie Kanzlerin geworden, Frau Merkel!“ (As a child bride, you would never have become Chancellor, Frau. Merkel!)
Result
One of the key intentions of the campaign was to find out from the Chancellor what the government intended to do about the current situation. To draw attention to this, DSW put a question on a key government website, direktzurkanzlerin.de (direct to the chancellor). By doing this people could view the question and raise its status – the higher the status the more attention it would receive by the Chancellor’s office. The result? It was so successful that it was voted (by the German public) as the number one question needing attention. This was an amazing outcome as it is clear that the German public have enough of the situation and are not ready to tolerate this anymore. Unfortunately the result from the government was less so outstanding – actually very disappointing – they answered with two sample projects underway by the GIZ and we were fobbed off by the German press agency. Obviously, preventing married children is not a high priority for the Chancellor. In response to this, DSW called on its supporters to send faxes direct to Frau Merkel – time was ticking, we needed to ensure that the Chancellor took this on board before attending the G7 Summit so real action could be instigated. This was also followed up by a tragic video (below), and intense online action. What did she see? It’s hard to know but what is certain is that she received all the faxes sent. We know this is old tech, but we needed to be certain that she would receive something – physical proof of the public’s outcry.
https://youtu.be/q0vzyOS8V3M
We will continue to push the German government to ensure that this topic is taken seriously and that immediate action is needed to improve the lives of millions of girls worldwide.
