Memory Banda, shown here in Ntcheu, Malawi, has helped draw global attention to child marriage.

Amos Gumultra/The New York Times/Redux

STANDARDS

NCSS: Culture • Individual Development and Identity • Individuals, Groups, and Institutions • Power, Authority, and Governance

Common Core: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.3, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.5, RH.6-8.6, RH.6-8.7, WHST.6-8.4, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.3, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.5, RI.6-8.6, RI.6-8.7, RI.6-8.8, W.6-8.4

WORLD NEWS

She Wants to End Child Marriage

Memory Banda’s sister was forced to marry at age 11, a common practice in their nation of Malawi. Banda has been working to stop the harmful practice ever since.

February 2025

By Rabson Kondowe

Question: What challenges do girls in Malawi face that force them into child marriage?

World map highlighting Malawai in Africa

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

Growing up in Malawi, Memory Banda and her younger sister were inseparable. Close in age, the girls were often mistaken for twins. They shared everything from clothes and shoes to even their hopes and dreams.

Then, one afternoon in 2009, their close relationship was shattered. Banda’s sister was forced to marry a man in his 30s. She was only 11 years old.

“She became a different person,” recalls Banda, who was 13 at the time. “We never played together anymore. . . . I felt like I lost my best friend.”

Their situation isn’t uncommon. Childhood marriage is a global problem. The highest rates are in Africa, but the practice also occurs in South Asia, Latin America, and the Caribbean. In the African nation of Malawi, about 40 percent of girls are married before the age of 18 (see “Malawi’s Child Marriage Crisis,” below). That is according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef).

Banda was determined to take a different path. She vowed to make her own choice about whether and when to get married—and to help other girls do the same. Her life as an activist had begun.

Malawi’s Child Marriage Crisis

Here’s a look at this issue facing young girls in Malawi today.

THE PROBLEM:

2.5 million girls in Malawi are married before age 18
563,000 of them are 15 years old or younger

^{SOURCE: Unicef}

THE CAUSES:

Poverty: Some families believe that arranging for their young daughters to marry will improve the girls’ futures and reduce the family’s economic hardship.

Traditional Beliefs: For generations, girls have married young. Changing the way Malawians view child marriage is a huge barrier to enforcing the law that bans the practice.

Lack of Education: Girls who marry young often drop out of school. This leaves them with few income opportunities, which continues the cycle of poverty and increases the chances that their daughters will end up in the same situation.

ONE SOLUTION:

The Girls Empowerment Network has provided more than 5,000 girls in Malawi with scholarships and school supplies to help them complete their education and avoid being forced into marriage. The group also works with communities to change social traditions that promote child marriage.

Roots of the Problem

Banda was born in 1996 in Chitera, a small village in southern Malawi. Her father died when she was just 3, leaving her mother to raise two girls on her own.

In Chitera and other rural parts of Malawi, daughters are expected to get married and have children, often at a very young age. This is especially true in poor families like Banda’s. Many parents believe marriage is in the best interest of their family. In their eyes, marrying off their daughters means they will have fewer people to feed and support. They also hope it will offer their daughters a chance at a better future.

To prepare for marriage, it’s customary for families to send their daughters to initiation camps when the girls reach puberty. The girls stay at the camps for weeks, learning how to be mothers and subservient wives.

Afterward, many girls end up quitting school and getting married. They are expected to do household chores and raise children instead of getting an education.

This tradition often locks girls into a life of hardship. Many men lack jobs or don’t earn enough to support their families. About 70 percent of people in Malawi live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

Meanwhile, quitting school at an early age limits girls’ job options and how much money they can earn to support themselves and their children. This keeps them financially dependent on their husbands. That, in turn, continues the cycle of poverty and gender inequality for future generations.

“I knew what I wanted in life, and that was getting an education.”

—Memory Banda

Breaking With Tradition

Banda’s younger sister hit puberty before her and was sent to an initiation camp. She was forced into marriage soon after.

When it was Banda’s turn to go to a camp, she refused. “I simply said no,” she says. “I knew what I wanted in life, and that was getting an education.”

But breaking with her community’s longstanding social tradition was not easy. Some women in Chitera pushed back because they thought she was disrespecting their cultural beliefs.

Despite the pressure, Banda dreamed of a different future for herself. She began to speak out and question child marriage. “Why should this be happening to girls so young in the name of carrying on tradition?” she asked.

Changing the Law

Banda found support from people at the Girls Empowerment Network. The Malawi-based organization trains girls to become advocates and urge their village chiefs to create rules against early marriage.

With the group’s help, Banda convinced her mother and aunts to let her make her own choice. Then she started a local movement, rallying other girls to say no to the initiation camps. Government officials, community leaders, and other activists joined her fight.

“A lot of people just wanted to be part of the movement and change things,” she says.

Their work eventually convinced Malawi’s government to raise the legal age for marriage from 15 to 18. That law was passed in 2015, but it is not strongly enforced, so Banda and others continue their work.

Banda’s efforts against child marriage have received worldwide attention. In 2019, she earned a Young Activist Award from the United Nations. That global organization has called for child marriage to be banned worldwide by 2030. And this past fall, Banda was presented with a Justice for Women Award by former U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama in New York City.

Habiba Osman, a lawyer and human rights advocate who has known Banda for more than a decade, describes her as a trailblazer. “She played a very crucial role in mobilizing girls in her community,” Osman says, “because she knew that girls her age needed to be in school.”

Empowering Girls

Banda has also fulfilled another lifelong goal—getting an education. She graduated from college and went on to earn a master’s degree. Now 28, she works with Save the Children International in Malawi to raise awareness about how child marriage negatively impacts girls’ futures.

She also runs her own nonprofit, the Foundation for Girls Leadership, in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital. The group promotes children’s rights and teaches leadership skills to girls. It has helped more than 500 girls avoid childhood marriage and stay in school.

Banda’s work is making a difference, says Eunice M’biya, who has taught history at the University of Malawi. In the past, almost every girl in certain rural areas of the country went to initiation camps. “But this trend is slowly shifting in favor of formal education,” M’biya explains.

As much as Banda has accomplished, she knows there is more to do. “Some of the girls that we have managed to pull out of early marriage ended up getting back into those marriages because of poverty,” she says.

Banda is currently focused on setting up a vocational school. It will provide job skills to young women like her sister, who have already gotten married.

“All I want is for girls to live in an equal and safe society,” Banda says. “Is that too much to ask?”

—Rabson Kondowe is a freelance journalist based in Malawi