#childbrides

Lumbaram married his 15-year-old daughter to a man who was in his 40s and had a reputation as a heavy drinker. It was part of a family trade. That same night, Lumbaram made a vow to her: "I will fix this."

Lumbaram. Swati Vashishtha for NPR

It was a daunting challenge. To break the marriage, Lumbaram would need permission from a group of elders. Typically they require a father who wants to end a match to pay the husband's family a fine of about $7,000 — an unaffordable sum for Lumbaram, who makes his living as a construction worker. Ending the marriage without the elders' signoff was technically possible. After all, the elders have no legal authority. But they would have declared Lumbaram ostracized for life if he were to act without their approval. No one would do business with him. Even his relatives wouldn't be able to talk to him.

Lumbaram’s daughter, Durga. Image: Swati Vashishtha for NPR

So Lumbaram set about playing a long game. First, he used the boarding school as an excuse to delay the start of Durga's life with her husband, telling him, "As long as she's getting a free education I won't send her to live with you." Lumbaram was able to keep the groom at bay even as Durga went on to graduate from high school and enroll in a local college.

Courtesy of Jenipher Sanni

At 14, Jenipher Sanni married a man who already had a wife and kids. He yelled at her a lot. She dropped out of school.

Now 20, she's left her husband and is a newly minted high school graduate. And she's helping girls in her community stay in school.

According to the U.N., about half of girls in Malawi — including Sanni — marry before they turn 18.

"Getting [married] at 14 years in our community, it is not so strange. Because some people see [it] as normal," as part of the culture," says Sanni. "It's not good."

Sanni knows from experience. When she was 14, she married a man with two children from another wife.

"He was shouting always at me," she says.

She stopped going to school because she got married, she says. But she didn't stay in the marriage long.

A local mothers' group encouraged her to leave her husband and go back to school. She left him when she was 15.

She just finished Form 4 — the equivalent of her senior year of high school. She's waiting to see how she did on exams. If all goes well, she hopes to attend university. She dreams of becoming a nurse or a teacher.

Sanni mentors other young girls as part of the Malawi Girl Guides Association. She meets with them to discuss topics like leadership — and how to manage their periods when there's no running water at school.