October 2026

#GIFDescription: Ashoka Fellows Priti Patkar, Suparna Gupta, Sunitha Krishnan, Ioana Bauer, and Stella Cárdenas.

One in five girls worldwide is married before 18. On the International Day of the Girl Child this month, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned that funding cuts threaten progress that has prevented an estimated 68 million child marriages in 25 years. That progress was not the work of one unique organization. It came from many people, across many sectors, acting from a shared understanding of what needs to change. Working closely with girls at risk, Ashoka Fellow Priti Patkar's organization, Prerana, shared a new case study on mobilizing child protection systems. Ashoka Fellow Suparna Gupta's Aangan is identifying early warning signs to prevent child marriage before institutions do. India's Supreme Court ordered a Victim Protection Plan for trafficking survivors after Ashoka Fellow Sunitha Krishnan Prajwala's survivor-led litigation. Romania launched its first national mechanism to detect child-trafficking risk early, with Ashoka Fellow Ioana Bauer's eLiberare. Colombia's Congress advanced anti-trafficking reforms that Ashoka Fellow Stella Cárdenas' Fundación Renacer pushed for over two years. Across our network, the pattern is clear: when people who are closest to the problem form networks around it, change reaches the scale girls need.

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