Dear Colleagues,
Last week, International Day of the Girl renewed the call to end child marriage and invest in girls’ rights. 12 million girls become child brides annually. I was promised in marriage at just five years old. I escaped that future and founded Kakenya’s Dream to help girls in rural African communities shape futures of their own.
Child marriage is sustained by compounding pressures: poverty, limited access to education and healthcare, climate change, and traditional gender norms. Yet the systems meant to help girls too often address these issues in silos, and girls fall through the cracks.
Picture a girl in an underserved rural community who receives a full scholarship. Staying in school helps protect her from marriage. Until a drought kills her family’s cattle, and the livelihood they depend on disappears overnight. Suddenly, her bride price begins to look like her family’s means for survival. While her scholarship may have provided one layer of protection, she is still vulnerable to other crises that could lead to early marriage.
Ending child marriage takes coordinated investments in girls’ education, health, economic opportunity, and climate resilience, alongside collective action to transform the policies and social norms that sustain systemic gender inequality. At Kakenya’s Dream, we’ve spent nearly 20 years bringing these holistic supports together with girls, their families, and entire communities to drive lasting change.
Silos grow costlier as global aid contracts. Official development assistance fell 23.3% in 2025, its largest drop on record. The sector is at a moment of reckoning. As funding and priorities shift, we have a chance to rebuild differently, with girls and women at the helm of this next era: shaping priorities, guiding investments, and leading the change that will determine whether their rights are realized. I hope you will join me in building this new era of development.
Sincerely,
Dr. Kakenya Ntaiya
Kakenya’s Dream
CEO & President