How Ika Became an Activitist Against Child Marriage in Indonesia
Meet Ika, a 17-year-old senior high school student living within one of the villages Mission: Hope serves in Indonesia. For years, Ika has been extremely timid and has avoided the spotlight at all costs. Recently, however, she learned about Mission: Hope’s Children’s Assembly work. Curious to learn more, Ika decided to attend an orientation for the program.
Through the orientation, Ika learned that Mission: Hope utilizes this assembly to guide, empower, and mobilize hundreds of youth to fight against child marriage. The hope is that these children will grow to understand that they deserve to be heard and use their voices to influence local legislation relating to child marriage.
This is important because the rate of child marriage has been extremely high in some of the villages Mission: Hope serves in Indonesia. In fact, within some villages, as many as one-third of girls between the ages of 15-19 are married off and have to forgo education to care for their husbands and children. Moreover, they are susceptible to domestic violence and divorce, which affect their children as well. Oftentimes, their children experience poverty, neglect, malnourishment, childhood trauma, and lack of education. This cycle is perpetuated by culture and a lack of knowledge on child rights.
After learning about the assembly, Ika felt called to join this cause and was trained to speak in front of crowds on issues relating to early child marriage. Despite her previous fear of speaking in front of others, Ika soon found herself in front of her peers sharing encouraging messages about the importance of staying in school, each child’s value and worth, and the right to say “no”!
Eventually, Ika was asked to become a moderator for meetings about the enactment of an anti-child marriage law for her region. Needless to say, Ika was intimidated. She knew that her audience would include various government groups, village heads, religious leaders, and community leaders.
She approached one of Mission: Hope’s team members and questioned, “Can I speak in front of the village officials? I am just a child. Would they listen to me?” Our team reminded her that she had been empowered and equipped to speak in front of these leaders and that her voice was just as important as any other voice. This motivated Ika to face her fears and stand up for herself and so many others. Ika wanted to make her parents proud, be an example for her classmates, and prove to herself that she could now be an advocate for her community.
She became just that, and her voice was heard. The meeting proved to be a huge success, and the local regulation against child marriage was ratified! Consultations with local village heads thereafter took place so that information about the new regulation would be properly disseminated.
Ika’s growth through the program is invaluable, and we are incredibly proud of the courage she showed. It is her hope that her village will continue to listen to children so that they can freely contribute their thoughts and ideas on social causes.
Thanks to our team’s work and the leadership of incredible people like Ika, after implementing our project, we saw an 80% decrease in child marriage cases!
Help us protect children around the globe from forced underage marriage by supporting our work today.
