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Council Featured on PBS NOW
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Guatemalans Marta Julia Ruiz, left, and Rosa Lacan appeared
in a PBS documentary that featured the Council’s work with
Mayan girls.
Photo credit: Karen Tweedy Holmes |
The Population Council’s
work with Mayan girls in Guatemala was highlighted in October on the PBS
weekly newsmagazine NOW. Senior correspondent Maria Hinojosa
traveled to Guatemala, India, and Niger to meet child brides and
document the campaign the Council and other organizations are conducting
to end child marriage. Only 14 percent of rural Mayan adolescent girls
have completed 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.
The one-hour film, “Child
Brides: Stolen Lives,” features Council researcher Marta Julia Ruiz
discussing the Council’s efforts to enable Guatemalan girls to reach
their full potential. A participant and now a program mentor, Rosa Lacan,
was also featured, speaking to girls and mothers in her village about
the goals of increasing girls’ social support networks, connecting them
with role models and mentors, and providing training so they can
participate fully in the economic and civic life of their communities.
Ruiz and Lacan and other
members of the Council’s Guatemala team, Kelly Hallman and Eva Roca,
joined Hinojosa in New York for a screening of the documentary at the
Council’s headquarters and participated in an informal discussion and
question-and-answer session with more than 60 representatives of
colleague organizations and donors. More information about the Council’s
program to end child marriage in Guatemala and other countries can be
found at www.popcouncil.org/ta/mar.html.
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