Preventing Early Marriage

Despite a stellar academic record, 17-year-old *Joy was on the verge of being married off as her parents could no longer afford her school expenses.

They needed the money for her two younger sisters and medical bills for her elderly grandmother. It looked like Joy’s dreams of training as a teacher would come to an abrupt end. But then Joy’s dad heard about our partners’ Learning Booster programme, and Joy was offered a place as a mentor. It meant her father could cancel her planned marriage, and Joy could pursue her education.

“Growing up in an impoverished household, Joy’s education was constantly at risk,” say our partners. “By preventing her early marriage, joining our programme has significantly changed the course of Joy’s life.”

Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, with a huge 51% of girls married before the minimum legal age of 18.

Numbers are even higher in rural areas, and amongst the poorest families, as many parents lack the means to educate their daughters and see early marriage as a solution. In Khulna, the district where our partners work, over 61% of girls are married before the age of 18, making it the region with the second highest rate of child marriage in Bangladesh.

Early marriage leaves girls at higher risk of maternal mortality and domestic violence and almost always means a premature end to education, stunting girls’ academic and personal development and trapping them in intergenerational poverty.

One of the most heart-warming and impactful results of our partners’ Learning Booster programme has been hearing the stories of girls like Joy, enabled through this project to avoid early marriage, complete their schooling and even begin higher education.

Looking to the future with hope

The Learning Booster programme was initially funded as a short-term post-Covid initiative helping children catch up on learning after lockdown. The project supported 300 young children in 20 village learning centres by offering older students, at risk of dropping out of school due to financial issues, the opportunity to act as coaches and mentors. Mentors receive a small stipend to enable them to continue their own studies. The initial project was extended for a further year, using trust funding to help 150 children at 10 centres. Of the 20 mentors currently helping to run this programme, 19 are girls.

Today, aged 20, Joy coaches a class of 15 children for four afternoons each week and uses her stipend to support her own studies. She completed her secondary education and is now at college. She still wants to become a teacher, and with the experience and education this project has delivered, Joy has every reason to look to the future with hope.

Global Care’s involvement with this project will end in the autumn of 2026. Our partners tell us that community ownership of this initiative has been so positive they expect the existing centres to continue without our input. We’re so pleased!

We are now working with our partners to establish a new preschool initiative for 4-7 year-olds in a remote coastal area where educational provision is minimal. We are delighted to celebrate hundreds of young lives changed through the Learning Booster programme – and look forward to impacting even more vulnerable children through the new project.

Check out our 2026 Harvest Appeal for details of the new preschool programme.