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MEDIA CENTER "Child Brides: Stolen Lives" NEW YORK, NY (4 October 2007)—The PBS weekly newsmagazine NOW will air "Child Brides: Stolen Lives" on Friday, 12 October 2007. This film explores child marriage in Guatemala, India, and Niger and documents the work of those campaigning to end this centuries-old practice.
Population Council staff worked with the filmmakers to showcase efforts to improve the lives of Mayan girls in Guatemala. Without intervention by the Council and its local partners, these girls would likely lead lives similar to those of their mothers and grandmothers, a fate that might include early marriage. Guatemala’s population is among the poorest, least-educated, youngest, and fastest growing in all of Latin America. Even within this setting of overall deprivation, young Mayan girls bear an especially heavy burden of disempowerment because of their age, gender, and ethnicity, and because they live in isolated rural communities. Only 14 percent will complete primary school. Leaving school early sets in motion an all-too-common script: early marriage, frequent unsafe pregnancies, social isolation, arduous domestic and childcare burdens, limited decisionmaking power within and outside the family, and gender-based violence. To help break this cycle and enable Guatemalan girls to reach their full potential, the Population Council works to increase girls’ social support networks, connect them with role models and mentors, build a base of critical life skills, provide professional training, and strengthen their capacity to mobilize the often limited resources available to them. Council experts also helped develop NOW's child marriage action kit and facilitator’s guide. Available free of charge from the show’s Web site, these tools help young audiences learn about the issue and about efforts to enhance opportunities for girls worldwide. For information about broadcast times, please consult the PBS Web site: www.pbs.org/now/sched.html. About the Population Council ### Media contact Diane Rubino: +1 212 339 0617; drubino@popcouncil.org See Also Offsite Link
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