How did you spend your 15th birthday? Maybe you hung out with your friends at the mall.

Maybe you rode your bike, went for a swim or went to the movies.
Fifteen-year-old girls in Ethiopia live a completely different reality. Approximately 15 million women in Ethiopia were married in childhood. Six million became brides — and often mothers –before their fifteenth birthdays.

Child marriage impacts so many aspects of these young women’s lives. They are far less likely to be educated — limiting their employment prospects — and they may face reproductive health issues.

Monika Federau, Chief Strategy Officer at Intact Financial Corporation, recently spent a week in Ethiopia with UNICEF Canada as a volunteer representative of The 25th Team on behalf of Intact Financial, which has pledged $100,000 over four years to aiding UNICEF Canada in improving child health outcomes in the developing world. …