mustbe HERCHOICE | ‘We have been working on tackling child marriage within the

‘We have been working on tackling child marriage within the Her Choice programme for 3 years now and we see that the number of child marriages is decreasing and the knowledge about sexual rights is increasing. We also see that many more girls go to high school.’ Evelijne Bruning, country director of Her Choice alliance member The Hunger Project Nederland, gave an interview this morning at NPO Radio 1, the Dutch national radio station, about the participation of Her Choice at ICPD25, the international summit that starts today in Nairobi.

Bruning tells the presenter about the impact of the Her Choice programme: ‘With an alliance of 27 organizations we are working together in 3000 villages to tackle child marriage. We are working on changing ideas about child marriages in entire villages, so that girls no longer marry that early, because 1 in 5 girls (which is the case worldwide) are still far too many. We want this number become much less, and we do see that change now. We have been working on tackling child marriage within the Her Choice programme for 3 years now and we see that the number of child marriages is decreasing in those villages and the knowledge about sexual rights is increasing. We see that many more girls go to high school. That’s very important, because the more education you have, the more choice you have as a woman in life. What follows is a long-term change to the issue of poverty.’

Bruning talks about progress in the Her Choice work areas, and explains why we need more time to really make an impact: ‘Change is slow, because we are trying to change norms. If you look back a little further, you see that in 1900 there were only voting rights for women in New Zealand. In 1920, women in the Netherlands worked an average of 12 hours a week doing laundry, now we all have a washing machine. In 1970 my mother was fired because I was born, and then we all thought that it was very normal. What I mean is that over time you can change what is considered normal. In 1980, 1 in 3 children under the age of 18 got married, which is now 1 in 5: that’s still 33.000 a day too many, but the situation is really improving.’

‘The problem is that we have internalized the idea that things are always going to stay this way, that we can’t change it. But if you don’t believe that we’re making progress, if you don’t know about it, then you will not be committed to it. Look at my own family: my mother thought it was normal for her to be fired. She still thinks it is better for my daughters when I sit at home and drink tea with them. But we organized it differently: I work full time, my husband is at home. But that is very difficult for my mother to accept. Old ideas wear out through time, and sometimes that takes generations.’

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