Empower communities to end child marriage - Mexico

Thanks to your support, we have managed to create links with a greater number of communities located at the high mountains of Guerrero to work on the eradication of child marriage, as well as early and forced unions. We currently have seven more agreements in which the local authorities and people have reaffirmed their commitment to eliminate this practice that violates the rights of girls and young people.

However, this is not enough, as we still have a lot of work to do: make Mexican society aware of this problem so that together we can all be part of a real and tangible change for them. Following this objective and with the pro bono support of an advertising agency, we created the campaign "Juanita's wedding", through which we state that the best gift that girls and young people can receive is not to get married, because that will allow them to have a full and free development in terms of decisions that help them build their life project.

From the launch of the campaign until February of this year we managed to impact +258,890 people on social networks, we generated +31,382 interactions and +37,161 video views; These figures show us that it is an important issue that we must continue to talk about and, of course, develop programs that generate positive change to reverse the problem.

We count on your valuable support, since with each contribution we will be able to continue creating awareness and having a public impact to protect the childhood of thousands of girls and young people in our country.

Four out of ten localities in the Municipality of Metlatonoc (Guerrero state, Mexico) have signed agreements in which they commit to prohibiting the sale of girls.

Through a simultaneous strategy where we sensitize and inform community members, teachers, boys, girls, and authorities, we promote the process of change of use and customs associated with the sale of girls. This period has been one of great challenges with adverse weather conditions, difficult access to communities, an increase in Covid-19 cases in the high mountain of Guerrero and little access to biosecurity measures and services by its inhabitants.

However, there have been more than 25 workshops, awareness-raising conferences and meetings with authorities that carry out actions in the region to eradicate early and forced child unions. Those who have participated, 628 inhabitants (children, teenagers, and adults), reported that they have got new knowledge, that now they can make decisions and think about different alternatives to solve their problems, and they ask for non-discrimination against women and respect for men's rights, since they have learned that they both have the same rights.