Seodi White

"When I came back the next day, the “women” had indeed gathered waiting for me. However I noticed that the “women” were not women, as such. They were… kids. Teenage girls"

"I was hoping to talk to women and not to kids or girls, as I don’t think they would understand much about inheritance"

"My hero the law, save the girls,” I thought! Yet, I soon found out that this was a complex story"

"I will remain sad because I know the cost of child marriage. It deprives girls of education and undermines their self-confidence and self-identity. It also makes them prone to physical and emotional abuse by their so called husbands"

"Girl-child marriages need to be prohibited tough the Constitution because they are a violation of every conceivable human right including the right to life, health, education, human dignity and development"

"What I know for sure child marriage is a guarantee for poverty among girls in my country and I want it to end. No ifs or buts"

"widow cleansing,” a traditional practice in which a widow is expected to have sexual relations, “in order to cleanse her"

"There is a belief that if she does not sleep with someone, the spirit of her dead husband will come and visit upon her and her family will be cursed"

"It’s a mindset issue,” says White. Even the widows, they’ve told me, ‘I don’t want to die, I don’t want a curse to come to my husband.’ They cry to be cleansed"

"Some have actually come out in the open and said: ‘I used to be a commercial cleanser, I’m HIV positive, I’ve stopped, it’s not fine and I go village by village telling other commercial cleansers to stop this, it’s a risky taboo behavior"

"I decided I’m going to dedicate my life to dealing with injustice, just because I don’t like it when a structure or system puts others in poverty, puts others in a position of inequality"

"In this country, to get ahead in life, to beat poverty, you need education"