Giving Compass' Take:

• Marie Claire profiles VOW, a charity recently launched by human rights activist Mabel van Oranji, whose mission is to end child marriage globally through partnerships with wedding industry giants.

• What can other organizations do to follow this inspirational lead? Is the international community supporting enough programs that increase access to education for women and girls?

• Here's more about the root causes of child marriages and how we can address them.

On a trip to northern Ethiopia, human rights activist Mabel van Oranje met a group of girls who were all married before turning 18. She turned to one, asking how old she was when she wed. “I don’t really know because I don’t have a birth certificate,” the girl confessed. “I must’ve been married off when I was between 5 and 7.” ...

The statistics about child marriage are staggering, but so is this one: The wedding industry in America is worth a whopping $100 billion. Van Oranje is tapping into that gold mine with VOW, a charitable initiative launching with one big, ambitious goal: For “child marriage to be in history books by the year 2030,” she says.

VOW puts the power to change the narrative in the hands of couples and companies. By partnering with wedding industry powerhouses such as The Knot and Crate & Barrel, and wedding dress and intimates designers including Watters, Alexandra Grecco, and Malia Mills, VOW gives brides-to-be the chance to give back with every big-day purchase. The partnership looks different across companies, but the end goal is the same: to monetize the wedding industry’s muscle for good. VOW channels the money raised via each partner into the Girls First Fund, an organization that helps communities in areas with a high prevalence of child marriage combat the problem through sex education, resources, and hotlines that girls can call when they find out they are being married off. By funneling the donations to local community programs, VOW can target the root of child marriage in that area (for example, by strengthening access to birth control in Niger or focusing on poverty solutions in India).

Read the full article about the new charity VOW aiming to end child marriage by Megan DiTrolio at Marie Claire.