Giving Compass' Take:

· Global Citizen tells the story of Ruvimbo Tsopodzi, a child bride who took her case to Zimbabwe's highest court and convinced her country to ban child marriages.

· How can funders help prevent and end child marriages? How can funders gain the necessary insight into the local culture to make a difference? 

· Learn how education can prevent child marriages.

Ruvimbo Tsopodzi was just 15 when she was forced into marrying a man she hadn’t chosen. Within four months she was pregnant, and her new husband was abusing drugs and alcohol.

Her story, tragically, is not dissimilar to the stories many girls in her home country of Zimbabwe — where 1 in 3 girls will be married before she turns 18.

“My experience was painful. I was made to sleep outside when I was pregnant,” said Tsopodzi in an interview with Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS).

“I was not used to eating one meal a day but this became the norm,” she said. “I used to be beaten up, until I realized that this abuse should not happen to me or to another girl child.”

“I realized my life was headed for disaster,” she added. “I got the courage to go and face my dad and present my situation. I grew up wanting to be a nurse, and my desire is to live the life I wanted than what you are forcing me into.

First, she persuaded her father to let her continue her education, and to follow her dream to become a nurse.

She joined an organization called Roots in 2013, a member of the global network of anti-child marriage organizations Girls Not Brides. Roots partnered with a legal think tank called Veritas, an organization campaigning against child marriage that was looking for girls to take their cases of child marriage to court.

Read the full article about child marriages by Imogen Calderwood at Global Citizen.