She slammed her laptop shut and angrily placed her head into the palms of her hands. Running her fingertips through her hair, she narrowed her eyes and stared outside. "I can't believe we're so oblivious to this."
"To what?" I muttered with my face stuffed into a book.
"To child marriages." She said those words with such disgust that it penetrated the pages of the book I was reading, and sunk deep into the binding.
"W-What?"
"We live in such a great place where rights are sought after that we forget that there are parts of the world where a girl cannot even raise her voice just half a decibel without getting whipped. Where a girl cannot even choose who to marry, whether she even wants to marry! And it makes me so mad that little girls who are deprived of education and their natural rights--to the brink that they are sent off with random strangers four times their age and are never heard from till the news announces she got beaten so much that she bled to death or that she died during labor because her body is not ready for pushing a baby out. I can't believe that we just sit here drinking our coffee and snuggled up in our warm beds, watching TV shows on-demand when girls have to walk miles to fetch water for their families and come home to get beaten by wood. It makes me furious to even consider how I've done nothing to help them."
"It's never too late, you know. If we start acting now, maybe we can help the babies who are going to be born out of those marriages. Maybe we can do a little good so that along the way, it helps more than we can imagine."
"How?" She asked with sincerity.
"Well, let's figure something out. Search up charities for child marriages or organizations that fight against it. Maybe we can pledge to donate a certain amount to help the cause or we can spread the word of it by making posters." I got up and opened up her laptop; I immediately went to search for organizations. "I just found seven organizations we can donate to. Maybe we can start a bake sale for this. We can donate to the Fundación Nueva Esperanza, International Organization for Women's Development, Population Council, UNICEF, the Veerni Project, Girls Not Brides, and CARE."
"Hey, listen, thanks." She gave me a small smile and gave me a warm hug.
"No need to thank me, really."
YOU ARE READING
therapy
Short Story"they told us that we needed therapy, as if medication and tainted words could fix broken toys."
