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‘Too Young to Wed: Guatemala’

In Guatemala, the legal age of marriage is 14 with parental consent, but in Petén, in the northern part of the country, the law seems to be more of a suggestion. Underage brides are everywhere. They parade endlessly through Petén’s hospital in San Benito, seeking medical care. Most have traveled from the villages along the mud-soaked roads that flow out in all directions.

I visited almost a dozen of these villages to meet some of the child brides of Petén for the latest Too Young to Wed transmedia project, this one a partnership with the United Nations Population Fund. Guatemala was the 10th country I had worked in documenting the issue of child marriage since 2003, after a chance encounter with several young brides in Afghanistan.

Child marriage is pervasive in more than 50 countries, with girls in rural areas of developing nations especially vulnerable. In the villages of Guatemala, around 53 percent of women age 20 to 24 were married before age 18, and 13 percent before age 15, according to the Population Council. Many of these girls faced harsh consequences, similar to those of child brides in other developing nations. They had withdrawn from their educations, some as early as elementary school; were subject to physical and sexual violence; risked dangerous pregnancies and went without crucial medical care. Many aspects of their lives were controlled by older men who considered the girls little more than sexual and domestic servants.

Furthermore, the physically immature and psychologically unready young mothers were prone to complications during childbirth, which often took place at home. For girls in Petén villages, the journey to competent care could take hours and the consequences dire. According to the International Health Alliance, Petén has the highest rate of maternal mortality in Guatemala at 172 deaths for every 100,000 births. The infant mortality is also high at 40 deaths for every 1,000 births.

When I visited the hospital, there were no fewer than four babies in the neonatal intensive care unit, all born premature to 14-year-old mothers.

“We call these children ‘little miracles,’ because it is a miracle that he is alive,” said Dr. Daniel Álvarez, a pediatrician with San Benito National Hospital, pointing out an infant who weighed only one and a half pounds at birth. “We don’t have the adequate equipment to treat a child that’s so little.”

Other times, the girls’ problems began only after making it home with their babies, where they were frequently abandoned by their husbands. Aracely was four months pregnant when her husband left, declaring the child wasn’t his. Now 15, Aracely is resigned to the burdens of being a single mother.

“During the time I was pregnant, he didn’t give me any money. He hasn’t even come to see the boy now that he’s a year old,” she said. Aracely is not alone in her experience. The United Nations Population Fund estimates that in 2015 more than 550,000 Guatemalan girls will marry before they are 18. That’s 1,500 girls married every day in just one country.