Participants at a webinar said empowering and educating adolescent girls, who had already been married off before turning 18, could be a way out to provide a better future for them.
They were speaking on Wednesday at a programme arranged by IMAGE Plus (Initiative for Married Adolescent Girls’ Empowerment), an awareness based project supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and focusing on adolescent girls married off early.
Farhana Jesmine Hasan, project director of IMAGE Plus, said married adolescent girls were often forgotten and the project was aimed at empowering them.
“We have worked with 9,000 married teenage girls and all of them reported enduring gender-based violence without knowing that they were being victimized,” she said.
She said the project educated adolescent girls about gender-based violence which eventually helped the girls to speak up about violence against them.
Under the project, a total of 9,000 early-married girls have received quality services, including improved access to sexual and reproductive health & rights (SRHR), nutrition, basic and vocational education and livelihood opportunities as well as reduced gender-based violence in Nilphamari, Gaibandha and Kurigram.
The project was jointly carried out by Terre des Hommes Netherlands in Bangladesh, RedOrange Media and Communications Limited, Terre des Hommes Foundation, SKS Foundation and Pollisree.
While addressing the webinar as guest of honour, Mushfiqua Zaman Satiar, senior policy advisor-SRHR and Gender of The Netherlands Embassy in Bangladesh, said married adolescent girls should not feel left out just because they could not escape early marriage.
“We wanted to engage them [married adolescent girls] in our project so that they do not feel left out. Our aim was to train them and make them feel they are still part of society where they can thrive,” she said.
Monira Rahman, founder and executive director of Innovation for Wellbeing Foundation, said alongside providing training, building awareness and educating the girls, their mental health should be focused on for their well-being.
“Child marriage is a traumatic experience for the victims. It doesn’t end with the wedding. The trauma stays with them for life and we need to focus on that,” she said.
The speakers also shed light on the importance of engaging men and in-laws of adolescent girls in building a support system for them within their families.
Arnob Chakrabarty, managing director of Red Orange Media and Communications, Nakib Rajib Ahmed, Head of Programmes of Red Orange Media and Communications, and Mahmudul Kabir, country director, Terre Des Hommes Netherlands, also spoke at the event.
