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10th March 2016
11:06am GMT
The pair were wed in a beautiful ceremony filled with roses, ribbons and tears.
Lilly took the day off school so that the couple could make use of the mid-week discount at their wedding venue – not that disrupting her studies really matters as Lilly won’t be going back to school this September. She’ll be far too busy keeping house and rearing children.
On the day of the wedding, while John beamed proudly at his new bride, Lilly waved goodbye to her family, her education and her childhood.
Feeling a little sick right now? Yeah. Us too.
But while this particular "wedding" was part of a campaign by UNICEF in a bid to put focus on – and try to end – the practice of child marriage, for millions of girls and young women around the world, this is their reality.
Their wedding day is not the best day of lives.
Instead, it is a day that marks the end of their childhood. It puts them at risk of rape, violence, abuse and exploitation.
It is, in fact, the end of their freedom.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfbi3CxE3Lw
According to UNICEF, there are more than 700 million women alive today who were married as children, more than a third before their 15th birthday. And the practice is not going anywhere, as this year alone, 5 million girls will be married before they turn 18.
“The world has awakened to the damage child marriage causes to individual girls, to their future children, and to their societies,” UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said in a statement.
If this wedding story upset you as much as it did us, you can find out more about the campaign and how we all can help here.
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