Sabancı Foundation Supports the Global Collaboration to Address Child Marriage

- We will Welcome more than 40 Non-Governmental Organızatıons from 23 Countries to the Workshop “We can End Child Marriage Together: Sharing Lessons From Other Countries”

Sabancı Foundation takes its efforts against child marriage to a global scale. This year, the Foundation supported the “Child Brides” project led by the Flying Broom Association at the national level and the “Early Marriage Is Not Our Destiny” project led by the Women Association of Muş at the local level. This time, the Foundation will be the main donor for a meeting of the Girls Not Brides: The Global Partnership to End Child Marriage in Istanbul.

Girls Not Brides is a platform founded by The Elders, a group of independent leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela, whose members include Kofi Annan, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson. As part of the collaboration between Sabancı Foundation and Girls Not Brides, non-governmental organizations from 23 countries will convene on 11 - 13 February to exchange best practice and ideas on how to tackle child marriage.

A press conference will be held on 11 February with the participation of Ms. Güler Sabancı, Chairman of the Sabancı Foundation Board of Trustees, Ms. Lakshmi Sundaram, Global Coordinator of Girls Not Bridesand Mr. Qamar Naseem, Program Coordinator of Blue Veins, a non-governmental organization based in Pakistan.

Sabancı Foundation commits to supporting child brides

Last year, Ms. Güler Sabancı joined the meetings held by the Clinton Global Initiative - CGI founded by the former US President Bill Clinton. In her speech at the CGI panel, Ms. Sabancı emphasized the commitment of Sabancı Foundation to support Girls Not Brides, a coalition of over 200 non-governmental organisations across more than 40 countries.