Child Marriage I Was Sold Into Marriage For 7 At The Age Of 12

It is estimated that one in five girls across the world is married by the age of 18. Even countries that have laws against child marriage sometimes fail to enforce them. But in Malawi some are seeing the first signs of alter.

The third time we visited Tamara we were told she had left for the nearby fields early in the morning, to till the soil.

At nine months pregnant, there was no rest for the 13-year-old.

Tamara (not her real name) had been sleeping on the floor of her aunt's small hut for several months after her husband, a man in his 20s, had run away.

He had heard that social services were coming to rescue Tamara from their illegal marriage and took off before they arrived, leaving her to walk to her aunt's village.

A lot has changed in Tamara's life in the past few years. Born into a rural farming community in southern Malawi's Neno district, her family lived below the Malawian government's poverty line, like 65% of others in the region. The war in Ukraine, a direct trade ally to Malawi, added pressure - halting wheat and fertiliser supplies and pushing up prices.

When Tamara's parents fell ill and died, in quick succession, their only child was taken in by her grandmother.

But after a month, when Tamara returned from school one day, her grandmother had some news.

"She told me I had to get married," Tamara says. "She had already received money from a man."

A man whom Tamara had never met had paid 15,000 Malawian Kwacha for her - around $9, or pound;7.

Tamara's grandmother had already spent the money on maize for the family and the man was now impatient. He wanted the girl he had paid for to leave school and live with him.




BBC