by Geraldine Ryerson-Cruz, World Vision, USA - At the Akha Teej festival in Rajasthan, India, hundreds of children – some under age 10 – are given away in marriage in a mass solemnisation ceremony.1 In Mwamba, Zambia, a couple contracts a future marriage for their 7-year-old daughter, whom the groom will claim when she reaches puberty. In Afghanistan, a father engages his 11-year-old daughter to a local man in exchange for the equivalent of US$6,000 to help feed the rest of his struggling family as prices for basic foods surge out of reach.