Some other facts have fallen out of the UNICEF report I mentioned last week. These facts, combined with the tidbits from last week, show two things. First, that the culture here is different, and while there are many things that are good about it (nobody is addicted to facebook) there are some things that are bad also, such as the conditions which girls are forced into by their families. The second things these facts show is why we try to be so protective of our girls here in the orphanage.
And now for the facts. They're not going to be happy at all, but that's kind of the situation in this country: there isn't always a lot of happy news.
- Almost 17% of girls will marry before they are 15 years old.
- Over 41% of girls ages 14-18 are pregnant.
- There are approximately 700,000 girls ages 12-14 that are married. A majority are forced.
- 70% of girls surveyed responded that they have had teachers proposition trading sex for a passing grade.
First, each of these stats must be explained, so let me go through one by one to explain some of the finer details. As for 17% of girls will marry before they are 15 years old, that pretty much stands on its own.
The fact that over 41% of girls ages 14-18 are pregnant is true and very likely. I would also like to to add that this stat is very specific. It does not refer to girls that have been pregnant or have given birth. It means that at the time they were surveyed they were eating for two.
The UNICEF report also states that 700,000 girls ages 12-14 that are married. After reading the report, this number is clearly handpicked and exaggerated. The real number is realistically closer to 300,000. Thats out of a total country-wide population of about 23 million. If the number still seems off, keep in mind that people only live till about the age of 45, and that half the population is age 15 and under.
The number of 700,000 is bad because what they did was to take the marriage rates from where I am in the rural north of the country and extrapolate it to match the rest of the nation. The rate is a lot higher here where that type of marriage is often required in the culture. They also had survey difficulties. In the north, they got good reliable data because everybody answered the questions. In the south and more populous end of the country, when they tried asking 12 years olds if they were married, their husbands shamefully intervened to take the girls away and they couldn't get honest answers.
Also, if you remember last week, we're defining marriage as between a man and a woman (and sometimes two or three more women on top of that). Polygamy is normal and widely accepted and you even have (non-mormon) churches here that permit it. And marriage itself is culturally defined as pregnant with his baby, living with him (cohabiting is the technical term), or recognized by the tribe/family/village/chief as being married. The younger the marriage is, the more likely it is that the family is arranging the marriage than it is a 12 year-old falling in love with a 40 year-old and becoming his 4th wife (and then probably getting HIV).
Lastly, the survey question that I believe was the most UNDERstated was that 70% of girls had teachers proposition sex. I want to say I was not shocked by this for two reasons (in fact, I think its higher). The first reason is because I was going through elementary school at the same time that two schools away the whole Mary Kay Letourneau debacle was unraveling, and so I just assumed that sort of thing was as common as rainy-day recess in Seattle. The second reason this does not surprise me is because we frequently check in with our girls to see if they are getting pressured from their teachers. Want to know what percentage of them have been pressured?
Survey says: All of them. 100% percent. And if its not the teachers, its their friends telling them to just sleep with the teachers in exchange for a good grade. Its shocking, its sad, and its the reality here.
Pretty soon here I'll give a post with some good news, and maybe some pictures. Who knows.
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