Every year, two million girls give birth before they turn 15, long before they are emotionally and physically ready. Becoming a child mother comes with huge health risks, including fistula, and in some cases even death. Once girls give birth, many drop out of school, suffering in silence. In fact, millions of child mothers remain invisible, excluded from national and global statistics, which deem the reproductive age of girls and women between 15-49 years old.
As global leaders, civil society organisations and NGOs gather for Women Deliver – the largest conference on the health, rights, and
Through a series of stunning photographs and moving stories, child rights organisation Plan International and UNFPA are turning the spotlight on the issues facing child mothers in a new project called #childmothers.
Earlier this year, photographer and filmmaker Pieter ten Hoopen and Plan International Sweden press officer and journalist Sofia Klemming Nordenskiöld met with child mothers from around the world and asked them to share their stories. The results are moving, harrowing, insightful and hopeful.
All names have been changed.
