| Reporting Organization: | CAUSE Canada |
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| Total Budget ($CAD): | $ 217,932 |
| Timeframe: | November 1, 2020 - January 31, 2022 |
| Status: | Completion |
| Contact Information: |
Wendy Fehr [email protected] |
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| Sierra Leone - $ 217,932.00 (100.00%) | |
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| Sexual Health & Rights (20.00 %) | |
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| Gender Equality (30.00 %) | |
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| Human Rights, Advocacy & Public Engagement (30.00 %) | |
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| Sexual & Gender-based Violence (20.00 %) | |
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“Mi Small Wef” No More (“My Little Wife” No More) is a gender-transformative innovation aimed at eradicating child marriage in rural communities of the Koinadugu and Falaba Districts of Sierra Leone. The innovation was tested in 20 rural communities for 11 months, achieving a reduction of 92-95% in the rates of child marriage. It first proved that an effective and efficient approach to eliminating child marriage is to empower respected community leaders as advocates against child marriage. Also, and although its focus was to reduce the demand for child marriage by educating men seeking child brides about the risks of early marriage for girls, their families of origin and marriage, and communities, one of the major findings was that educating families receiving/subject to receiving bride price offers, and engaging the entire community were important compliments for reducing girls’ vulnerability to child marriage. Moreover, findings reconfirmed the crucial role of girls in knowing and advocating for their rights.
| Gender and age: | Unspecified |
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| Total Direct Population: | Unspecified |
| Home visits | |
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| Community events | |
| Workshops |
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The innovation’s major achievement is the reduced vulnerability to child marriage of adolescent girls in the targeted rural communities. The evidence supporting this achievement is the change in the behavior of the main decision makers: men deciding not to make, or rescinded bride price offers; and families deciding not to accept existing or potential bride price offers. In addition, the intervention achieved an increased community participation in social action against child marriage, evidenced by community leaders who are actively advocating to prevent child marriage. In a short period of time, this willingness and direct action to stop child marriage materialized in the reduction of child marriages taking place, either because they were not planned or because they were cancelled.
