Child brides are disempowered, dependent on their husbands and deprived of fundamental rights to health, education and safety.    

81.5 million Americans have considered adoption. If just 1 in 500 of these adults adopted, every waiting child in foster care would have a permanent family.      

Children often wait three years or more to be adopted, move three or more times in foster care and often are separated from siblings.  The average age of waiting children is 7 1/2 years old.        

UNICEF estimates that 300,000 children are involved in armed conflict worldwide.  

When girls marry early, they are vulnerable to multiple negative social and health outcomes.

UNICEF, the most reliable data collection and analysis agency, states that as of 2005 there are 163 million orphans worldwide including what is called “single orphans” or children who have lost one parent. 95% of all orphans are over the age of 5.  

Worldwide, it is estimated that 17.8 million children under 18 have been orphaned by AIDS, and that this will rise to 25 million by 2015. An “orphan” is defined by the United Nations as a child who has lost one or both parents.  

Internationally, according to the UNHCR The UN Refugee Agency, approximately half of the world’s refugees were under the age of 18 (as of 2013).    

Every three minutes a child dies from AIDS somewhere in the world and only 12 percent of them receive any kind of support.    

Globally, 18,000 children die every day from hunger and malnutrition.  That is 12.5 children every minute.