When global development professionals talk about early marriage and health, they often focus on reproductive health consequences, like how early marriage raises a girl’s risk of dying during childbirth. However, other serious health effects of early marriage—like depression and anxiety—tend to get overlooked.
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At just 14 years old, Mangal Waikar’s parents pressured her into a marriage she didn’t want. As she began raising her own children, she wondered: how could she keep them from following the same path? Set in rural Maharashtra, India, “Something Different for Our Daughters” tells the story of how Mangal and her daughter, Shital, …
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Rainbow Community Kampuchea (RoCK) brings LGBT people from throughout Cambodia together to reflect on their experiences of discrimination and ignorance. By creating a strong LGBT community, RoCK hopes to advocate for change—in LGBT lives and in society at large.
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Elizabeth Daube wrote this piece in response to Ellen Barry’s article, “Indian Women Seeking Jobs Confront Taboos and Threats,” published in The New York Times on January 30th, 2016.
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Sonali’s parents forced her to marry at age 14, and her husband turned out to be abusive. Sonali found the strength to start her life over with the help of MBBCDS, an Indian organization in West Bengal funded by AJWS. She is now pursuing her goals, continuing her studies and working to prevent child marriage …
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Stories from the lives and work of young activists India is home to one-third of the world’s child brides, despite decades-old laws that prohibit marriage for girls younger than 18. Child marriage cuts across many regions and religious communities in India, and it causes lasting harm: research shows that child brides are more likely to …
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Sunita Jaiswal can’t remember a time when she was happier. On a Saturday afternoon in her tiny house—set in a sprawling, crowded Delhi slum—her daughters grin and perch along the narrow stairs, bounding up or down to make way for passing guests. Meanwhile, Sunita pours cold soda into steel cups and passes them around, beaming …
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Hundreds of Maya Achi people were murdered to make way for a dam in Guatemala. Decades later, their families finally find justice. Back in 1982, Carlos Chen Osorio was a young man with a family: his wife, Paulina, and their toddler children, Enriqueta and Antonio. Paulina carried their third child inside her, and expected to …
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In 2012, Bernardo was shot and killed. Locals allege that he was assassinated by supporters of the mining project in an attempt to silence the opposition. While his murderers remain at large, the people he left behind have refused to give in to fear and intimidation. With support from Colectivo Oaxaqueño and other AJWS grantees …
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When 43 college students disappeared from Iguala, Mexico in late September 2014, the incident was just one in a long series of tragic stories. As the country’s epidemic of government corruption and gang violence has escalated over the past decade, more than 26,000 people have simply disappeared.
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