Mabel van Oranje Reflects on Recent Visit to Guatemala
Visiting Guatemala in May 2025, I had the chance to meet impressive adolescent girls, young women and local leaders from grassroots organizations who are working to challenge gender inequality and change the status quo in their communities. I also met with President Bernardo Arévalo and Vice President Karin Herrera respectively. Both leaders expressed a clear commitment to improving the lives of girls, women and Indigenous communities, who are often most affected by inequality and marginalization.
In this blog, I share some of my reflections. Ultimately, there are many challenges facing adolescent girls and young women in Guatemala. Yet, from community conversations to the highest political office, there are leaders who are speaking out for girls and women, which gives me hope. On this trip, I also saw how change is happening on the ground despite difficult circumstances. I was struck by the resilience and leadership of some of the adolescent girls and young women who I met, and how funding from the Girls First Fund to community-based organisations are making a big difference, including on how girls feel and act. As one Mayan adolescent girl told me: “I now know that I can decide for myself and make my own choices in any situation. I know how to say ‘no’. It is my body, my feelings.” This work truly matters.
The challenges facing Guatemalan adolescent girls
In Guatemala, nearly three in ten girls (29%) are married or in a union before the age of 18. This often means an end to their education, new adult responsibilities, and increased vulnerability to domestic violence. It is also closely related to early pregnancy – with national data showing that 1 in five young women have a baby before turning 18. Child marriage is especially prevalent among Indigenous and rural communities.
Like in many countries in Latin American and the Caribbean, most child marriages in Guatemala happen in the form of informal unions, i.e. partnerships in which couples live together without formalising their relationship through a legal marriage. In the country, ‘las juntan’ (in English: ‘they are paired up with someone’) is a common term to describe these informal unions. Where minors are involved, the United Nations considers informal unions as a form of child marriage. In 2017, Guatemala set the legal age of marriage at 18 years, without exceptions, and yet unions – which are unregistered and hard to track – remain common.
According to a 2020 UNFPA baseline report, the average age gap between adolescent girls and their partners in unions is about five years. Over 80% of girls aged 15 to 19 who are in unions have partners who are older than age 20. These age differences often lead to serious power imbalances, which limit girls’ ability to make choices and negotiate their relationships on equal terms.
Child marriage in Guatemala is not the result of a single cause; it is rooted in unequal gender norms, but also poverty, violence at home and in communities, early and unintended pregnancies, and taboos around sexuality and reproductive health. Limited access to secondary education, contraceptives, and meaningful work opportunities, especially in rural areas, mean that a marriage/union often appears as the only available path.
Supporting local efforts through funding and collaboration
I travelled to Guatemala for a four-day trip with colleagues from the Girls First Fund, Girls Not Brides and VOW for Girls. We visited a range of grassroots organizations addressing child marriage and early unions, with the goal of listening, learning, and better understanding how child marriage manifests in Guatemala and how organizations and communities are addressing this human rights violation.
The Girls First Fund started working with community-based organizations in Guatemala in 2024. During its first year, the Fund provided more than USD 410,000 to 14 community-based organizations to enable work across 12 departments (districts). These organizations are implementing a range of programs from strengthening girls’ leadership and knowledge of their rights; to supporting workshops on culturally relevant sexual and reproductive health information for girls and mothers; promoting girls’ sports in rural areas; and working with local public schools on comprehensive sexuality education.
A close partner of the Girls First Fund, Girls Not Brides provides strategic and financial support to La Mesa a Favor de las Niñas y Adolescentes, a collective of organizations which are advancing the rights of girls and adolescents in Guatemala. Since 2023, through the creation of a national partnership, they have supported the leadership and public voice of girls and young women, particularly from Indigenous and rural communities. Together, they aim to promote public policies that enable girls to make free and informed decisions about their bodies, lives and futures.
I subsequently joined a delegation from Forward Global for a five-day trip to explore how private philanthropy and impact investment can support local efforts to strengthen democracy, economic justice and equality – including for Indigenous communities, girls and women.
Things that I found notable
Guatemala is a beautiful country, with a wonderfully welcoming population. It is also a country with great poverty and complex inequalities. Let me share some thoughts that I keep returning to:
- Gender norms, machismo and related gender-based violence – In many of the countries I have worked in, I have seen how patriarchal gender norms take on different shapes depending on history, culture and context. In Guatemala, several women shared how what is often described as ‘machismo’ shows up in deeply rooted ways – not only in attitudes, but also in who holds power, who makes decisions, and whose voices are listened to, whether in households, communities or institutions. They shared that when they are in the rooms where decisions – big or small – are made, too often they are ignored.
Gender inequality also drives the high levels of pervasive gender-based violence, including systemic sexual violence against girls. Between 2018 and 2024, nearly 15,000 girls in Guatemala aged 14 and under gave birth and became mothers, often because of abuse or coercion. (See this Human Rights Watch report for more information).
- Taboos around sexuality and lack of comprehensive sexuality education – Many adolescent girls end up in unions because of early, unintended pregnancies. In my conversations, I learned that many teenagers are not taught about reproductive health before their first sexual experience – neither by their parents, nor at school. Some parents seem to fear that it will promote promiscuity. In rural areas especially, young people often do not receive information about how their bodies work, consent, or reproductive health. And even when they do, they face enormous stigma around sexuality, including contraceptive use.
Despite these taboos around sexuality, there seems to be much less shame around early pregnancies than in many other parts of the world that I have visited. That is, whilst many adolescents are not given the information and tools that could better help them to navigate safe and consensual sex – and often live in environments with high rates of sexual violence – once pregnant, there seems to be an openly accepted pathway for girls to leave the family home and enter an informal union.
- International aid cuts – The cuts in international aid budgets, especially USAID, are having a devastating impact on the work of Guatemalan civil society organisations and the communities they serve, affecting the delivery of basic services and cutting wide-ranging programmes. Community-based organisations are being notified of project suspensions and, in some cases, still waiting to receive allocated funds for already-approved projects.
Things that give me hope
Despite the challenging situation for girls and women in Guatemala, I left feeling hopeful. Let me share some of the reasons why I feel optimistic.
- There is a supportive government – During my time in Guatemala, I met President Bernardo Arévalo and, separately, Vice President Karin Herrera. Both seem keen to improve the situation of girls and women, and of Indigenous people, and appreciate the importance of keeping adolescent girls out of marriages and unions. They spoke about reviving the expired national plan to prevent teenage pregnancy and expressed support for youth and gender policies. They also indicated their support for multi-stakeholder approaches – where different ministries, various levels of government, Indigenous leaders, donors, civil society and other stakeholders work together on solutions. Their broader anti-corruption agenda could also benefit girls and adolescents by promoting a more transparent use of public resources in key sectors such as education, health and social protection.
- Change is happening on the ground – Learning about child marriage in Guatemala, I was once again reminded that ending child marriage happens locally – in the lives of girls, their families and their communities. Yes, national laws, policies and plans are important to create an enabling environment. But ultimately, successful interventions require leadership from those actors who know why it happens in a specific place, what needs to be done to change it, and who in the community holds the power of change. This is why the Girls First Fund, with support of VOW for Girls, is providing crucial support to community-based organizations working to transform the gender norms that contribute to early unions.
Around the world – including in Guatemala – there are too many examples of how girls are treated as being of less value than boys. And I have witnessed how this often translates into girls having little or no confidence to communicate their needs and feelings. But when girls are supported, belong to a collective, and are given space to organize and speak, this can quickly shift. They become more confident in expressing themselves. As a 13-year-old Guatemalan girl involved in an organization supported by the Girls First Fund told me: “In the past I was so afraid to talk to other people. My parents thought I had a problem. I was so shy that I couldn’t have friends. But here I have started to talk. I am here. I am no longer so shy. I have friends.”
- Everyone can be a changemaker – During our visit, we met numerous impressive adolescents and women who are driving change in their communities. Let me tell you about two of them, Ixchel and Nikté. These young people - both age 17 - are part of the ‘Yo Decido’ (English translation: ‘I Decide’) programme of the Fundacion Oxlajuj N’oj, which is supported by the Girls First Fund. Following their experiences and training, they are using their voice to raise awareness of, and challenge, inequality and harmful social norms with their families, peers and in school. Listening to these adolescent girls and many other changemakers during the nine days spent in Guatemala provided me with a stark reminder that change starts small and happens locally. As Ixchel shared: “It is just the two of us, but it only takes the two of us to create a movement in our community.” And, based on my observations, that movement is growing in Guatemala.
Overall, I am hopeful about the work that is being done to end child marriage in Guatemala – and all around the world. When I started working on child marriage in 2010, we knew that change is not easy and will not happen overnight. But I am, once again, impressed with the change that is possible when dedicated individuals and organisations work together to make sure that “girls can be girls, not brides”.
Mabel van Oranje