Ethiopian Prominent Artists Engage UNFPA's 'Stop Early Marriage' Campaign
 

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) organized a canvas painting event at Meskel Square on 7& 8 March 2008 participating Ethiopia's prominent artists in its campaign under a theme "Stop Early Marriage".

A painting of a 100 meter canvas, which is the largest piece of painting ever painted in Ethiopia, by 30 of Ethiopia's prominent artists including Desta Hagos, Alem Teklu, Bekele Mekonen, will be launched at the Square on March 8, the International Women's Day, commemorated this year under a theme "Investing in Women and Girls", UNFPA officials disclosed on Monday.

Dr. Monique Rakotomalala, UNFPA Representative to Ethiopia at Hilton said the canvas painting event is one of the major activities forming part of the national campaign entitled "Stop Early Marriage", which was conceived a few months ago by UNFPA, the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Population Council.

The campaign was graciously kicked-off under the auspices of Ethiopia's First Lady, Azeb Mesfin, at the recent summit of the African First Ladies.

"In tandem with the 4-days celebration of March 8 events, organized by the Ministry of Women Affairs - this unique, participatory and big-impact event is believed to be a key milestone in enhancing the understanding of the public, policy-makers and development stakeholders on early marriage" "Early Marriage is one of the prevalent forms of gender-based violence in Ethiopia with negative consequences on women's and girl's reproductive health, including maternal deaths, fistula, HI V/AIDS and other negative psycho-social problems," noted the UN agency representative.

The team of artists participating in the canvas painting is Ethiopia's celebrated artists, who will bring an interesting mixture of styles, ages and gender to express their feelings for the fight against early marriage. The canvas painting event will be taking place in full view on the public. Booths set up at the venue will also provide information regarding early marriage.

Gender is one of the core mandates of UNFPA and the organization has built operational experience in preventing early marriage and addressing the consequences of the practice in urban Ethiopia.

The "Stop Early Marriage" campaign will also be linked to some key publicity events in 2008, including the Women's First Run taking place on March 23rd; the Sixteen Days of Activism Against Gender Based Violence and World Population Day. Currently UNFPA is running radio and TV spots on national and regional radio and TV stations as part of the campaign and the spots will be aired for three consecutive months to come.