The First Lady, Zineb Jammeh has called for an end to child marriage – common in rural areas.

She said The Gambia needs to increase the investments that provide quality services to girls and expand the opportunities for the future.

The First Lady made these remarks in a statement read on her behalf by Fatou Mass Jobe in Lower River Region during a commemoration marking the International Day of the African Child.

Read the statement below:

I wholeheartedly welcome the decision of the African Committee on the Rights and Welfare of the Child and the African Union for the crucial attention given to this year's celebration of the Day of the African Child by selecting the theme; “25 years after the Adoption of the African Children's Charter: Accelerating our Collective Efforts to End Child Marriage in Africa.

Child marriage also threatens efforts to improve maternal health across Africa. Child brides face higher risks of death and injury in pregnancy and childbirth, with girls under 15 being five times more likely to die in child birth than women in their 20s. Their children are at risk too: when a mother is under 18, her baby is 50 percent more likely to die in its first of life than a baby born to older mothers.

The Unicef Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) Report of 2010 had indicated that almost 9 percent of girls are married before the aged of 15, and 46.5 percent before 18, with the poorest rural girls being the most vulnerable to the practice.”

 We need to increase the investments that provide quality services to girls and expand the opportunities for their future. Quality education opens the way for girls to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. The evidence is unequivocal; education saved lives and transforms lives, it is the bedrock of sustainability. Let us join hands and send child marriage to the dustbin of history