Today marks the sixth International Day of the Girl, the initiative set up by the UN to address the issues around the world that are preventing girls from living "safe, educated and healthy lives".
"Girls have the potential to change the world," the UN says. "Both as the empowered girls of today and as tomorrow’s workers, mothers, entrepreneurs, mentors, household heads, and political leaders."
To celebrate today, the UK Department for International Development has released some incredible photos of young women from Tanzania and Uganda who are sharing what the UK's commitment to getting contraception to 20 million vulnerable women around the world, every year, has meant to them.
“For millions of girls in the poorest countries, becoming a teenager means the end of freedom," says International Development Secretary Priti Patel. "Too often girls are taken out of school to be married and forced to have children while they are still children themselves. It should not be this way."
Read on to find out how getting access to contraception has changed the lives of six women.
Rachel, 19
When Rachel was 17, she got into a relationship and fell pregnant. She was going to school at the time and dropped out to have the baby. She lives with her mother, who works in a market and helps her financially. Rachel is now working in a salon where she's getting training in hairdressing and tailoring.
"I didn’t know about family planning when I was having my relationship. I did know that I would get pregnant by having sex but my mother discouraged me from using any contraception [because she] had heard rumours that if a young girl is given contraception at a very early age, in future she might not be able to have children."
Rachel said her mother also worried that if she were to get contraception, it would look like she was encouraging her to have sex, thus exposing her to STIs and HIV. Now, though, she is more supportive of the idea as she is concerned about the financial implications of Rachel having another child.
"I don’t regret not coming for counselling or advice on family planning because I now have a daughter and I would never have considered an abortion," Rachel says. "I have friends who, like me, got pregnant and had to drop out of school. Some of them had abortions. One of my friends had a bad experience – she had an abortion and died.
"After I had my daughter, I didn’t want to have another child so that’s why I decided to come to the health clinic and to get contraceptives. My mother has been very supportive of me getting contraception although the baby’s father doesn’t like me using [it] – but we are not in a relationship right now.
"Family planning is important because it helps to protect the youth/ young people like me not to have many children when they are still very young."
Beatrice, 16
Beatrice is a student at Saranga secondary school in Tanzania and the leader of Heroes, a group made up of teens who are educating their peers on family planning and avoiding teenage pregnancies. As well as young people, Beatrice is also keen to educate parents and adults about the importance of family planning.
“Family planning is important because it will prevent young girls getting pregnant while they’re still in school," she says. "I want to be a doctor but if I got pregnant I would have to drop out of school.
“I want to educate young people and make them confident enough to go and ask for contraception and counselling.”
Happyness, 18
Happyness isn't married and doesn't have children. She heard about family planning and went to the hospital to get the implant when she was 14, after several of her friends fell pregnant. Her aunt, who she lives with, doesn't know, but her parents and another aunt who works at the hospital, do.
"My mother didn’t want me to have it," she says. "She didn’t want her daughter using it. I chose the implant so I don’t have to come that often, so I don’t get seen by others. I’ve had the implant for four years.
"There are many misconceptions about family planning, that you may have severe bleedings as a side-effect, that’s why people have many kids instead of having family planning.
"My dream is to be employed as a teacher but I haven’t got anything to do since finishing school. I want to be an entrepreneur and I wish I could get a loan so I could grow grapes in Dodoma that are exported for wine."
Rosemary, 19
Rosemary is pictured here with her husband Israel, who is 20. They are at a UK aid-funded clinic, where she is receiving family planning advice and contraception.
“I was 18 when I got married. [Beforehand] I knew about family planning services but I didn’t use them because I wasn’t in a relationship," she says. "When I got married, I wanted to have a baby. I completed primary school but I didn’t continue education. My father didn’t want me to. I wanted to [go to] secondary school but my father refused. He wanted me to work. I was taken to Dar to be a maid at 14 years old. I stayed for three months and came back."
Of the choices contraception has given her in life, she says: "I want to wait five years until I have another baby. I walked for one hour to come here today.”
Emma, 19
Emma moved in with a man at 16 and fell pregnant at 17. She is now the mother of an 18-month-old boy. She never met her father and her mother left her with her grandparents when she was very young. Her grandparents couldn't afford to let her finish primary school. She became a domestic worker.
Emma says that when she met her partner, she knew that having sex would make her pregnant but she didn't understand how.
Now, she has found access to contraception and she's using it because she doesn't want another child – her husband doesn't have steady work and his income isn't stable. Her husband, however, doesn't know that she is using contraception. He wants another child.
First, Emma used the implant and says when her husband found out, he was angry and wanted her to remove it. Now she is having an IUD inserted as her husband won't know. She says she will go home and show her husband that her implant was removed.
Salome, 19
Salome is not married. She got pregnant when she was 18 and sadly, had to drop out of school. The baby's father has a job as a driver and supports her.
It was actually her mother who sent her to the clinic. This is her first time getting contraceptives.
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