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Globally Women and Children Struggle for Rights
Millions of teenagers’ worldwide are at risk of being married and there has been global development by governments to end child marriages.

Child marriage occurs in every region of the world and one out of every four girls is married before the age of 18.

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased women and girl’s responsibilities of running households when most are finding it hard to make a living.
In many ways, women, especially from downgraded societies and those with disabilities have been affected mostly through facing challenges in accessing sexual and reproductive health services such as contraceptive pills to prevent unwanted pregnancies.

African countries account for 15 of the 20 countries with the highest rates of child marriages and in high income countries such as the United Kingdom these issues also occur.

Child marriages stops girls from partaking in all scopes of life mostly their access to education is affected and girls who get married earlier often leave school due to social pressure, household tasks, and pregnancy which leads to parenting.

Recently, a new agreement was signed to protect the rights of women and children in Saudi Arabia in order to reduce the suffering of those less fortunate with a focus on women and youth.

Kenya’s Machakos County during this coronavirus period currently recorded that 3 964 girls became pregnant as children stayed at home due to COVID-19 closures.

Women's voices must be aligned in decision-making both at the national and community level so that equality is upheld.

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