Accelerating Action to End Child Marriage (AAECM) Project

Project Goal/ Objective: To ensure adolescent’s childhood free from the risk of marriage; experience healthier, safer and more empowered life transitions while in control of their own destinies, including making choices about their education, sexuality, relationships, marriage, and childbearing.

Project Duration: The project started in 1st January 2021 and will continue up to 31st Dec, 2023.

Project Location(s): Dhaka and Chattogram City Corporation; Bogura, Jamalpur and Patuakhali District

Financial Partner: This project is technically and financially supported by UNFPA Bangladesh.

Target Beneficiaries:

  • Primary target of this project is 10-19 years adolescents’ girls irrespective of their marital, social, economical and religion status.

  • Boys, men of respective girl’s family

  • Families (extended family members), communities, traditional and religious leaders, and other influencers of the respective community

Project brief: Child Marriage violets the human rights and destroys the potentials of a girl. Through AAECM project, CWFD is working to prevent child marriage from local to national level. It focuses on adolescent’s life skills on SRHR issues through conducting weekly sessions at Kishoree Resource Center (KRC) and courtyard meeting at community level. CWFD is working to prevent child marriage in three ways:

  • Empowering adolescent girls

  • Community mobilization on the negative impact of Child marriage

  • Providing support to strengthen existing systems i.e. Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee (ASHC), Nari Nirjaton Prevention Committee (NNPC) and Child Marriage Prevention Committee (CMPC).

Major activities of this project are:

  • Empowerment of adolescent girls through conducting life skills sessions on SRRH issues

      • At Kishoree Resource Centre (KRC)

      • Courtyard meeting with married girls

  • Family and community engagement through

  • Organizing community engagement activities with different level of community stakeholder

  • Mass media and social media campaign

  • Local community engagement by Community Based organizations (CBOs) through arranging courtyard meeting, tea stall meeting, video shows, information dissemination etc.

  • Sexual harassment free secondary schools through functionalizing Anti Sexual Harassment Committees (ASHC) as per high Court verdict

  • Provide orientation to Anti-Sexual Harassment Committee

  • Provide support to ASHC members for arranging and conducting quarterly meetings among themselves

  • Engage local level grass root youth/women led organizations

  • Organize training /orientation for Upazila and District level Nari Nirjaton Prevention Committee (NNPC), and Child marriage Prevention Committee (CMPC) on Child marriage Restraint Act -2017 (CMRA-17), CMRA rules-2018 and National Action Plan to End Child Marriage (NAPECM).

  • Support Department of Women Affairs (DWA) to timely implementation of the National Action Plan to combat child marriage.