UNICEF - moonfisherproductions

Tongogadima/ Abou Boutila- Cameroon- December 2016

Child marriage stories from Cameroon

In Eastern Cameroon 48% of girls are married before the age of 18.

Only 62 % of the girls in the East go to school, 9% of which were forced to have their first

sexual relationship.

Thirteen Stolen Smiles is a story raising awareness of child marriage. Photographed in Eastern Cameroon in 2016, it looks at the experience of four young girls (Elisabeth,

Mirabelle, Mariam and Delphine) married or promised for marriage at the age of 13.

In addition to its focus on an issue of social concern, the series blends portraiture with details of features or pieces of fabric, as if to create a proximity between the photographed young girls and the viewer. It also presents multiple interpretations of home from indoor

spaces to desolate ruins left in the village, almost as a metaphor for a life’s journey poised between loss, of innocence, of one’s freedom, and the resilience of those teen mothers now carers of even younger lives.

13 years old and a whole life in front of you, the hope to grow up one day and maybe become a doctor to save millions of children.

13 years old, the first love stories, the games outside the school, the first true friends and the

first big aspirations.

13 years old the first songs full of dreams, the first books taken heart.

Sometimes though, at 13 years old life isn’t anything like this. Gado Cameroon, about 50

km from the border with Central African Republic in the Eastern part of Cameroon, girls at 13 years old with their childish fine bodies and deep mature gaze have eyes full of sadness; at this age they are given away in marriage and they leave school.

Elisabeth, Mariam, Delphine and Mirabelle come from different backgrounds and places,

Elisabeth and Mariam fled their countries to escape war and found shelter and protection in

two families who gave them away for marriage at age 13, whereas Delphine and Mirabelle left school to go in their husbands homes at the same age, age in which you should be thinking about building your future and living your freedom.

Elisabeth is 13 years old and is a Central African Refugee who found shelter in Cameroon. Her host family gave her away in marriage to an older man, but she would like to stay in school.

Elisabeth's home in Abou Boutila

Elisabeth dreams of becoming a doctor and saving million of children.

Mirabelles' home

Mirabelle and her children in their home in Abou Boutila. Mirabelle got married to her husband, they were respectively 13 and 14 years old when their childhood was ripped from them, leaving school and going to work in the fields all day.

Her husband's family offered a rooster and $10 as payment for Mirabelle.

They have 2 children and their expecting their third. “ I hope to send my children to school for as long as possible, I would like them to have an education and to be able to make their own choices.

Every child should have the right to go to school and every parent should be responsible and look after their children's future. I tell to my children to work hard and learn in school, because knowledge is the most powerful vehicle for opening the doors of freedom and climbing out of poverty.

Mariam is 13 years old and already married to a 33 years old man.

She fled The Central African Republic on her own with no members of her family and was accepted in a family that after nourishing her and giving her a place to sleep, forced her to marry their 33 year old son.

Her ransom was her youth which she paid to escape violence and suffering but she was robbed of her freedom in the process.

A home in Tongogadima

“I want to start a small business and leave my husband, he isn't kind to me, I am hurt and mistreated if I don't do as he wishes. I left my country alone to escape the war and violence, finding shelter and food in Tongogadima, I quickly realized that something is never done for nothing, so I was forced to marry in exchange. Mariam, 13 years old.