article: "I tried to run away but my mother said she would kill herself if I did not marry him." "I was not mature physically or emotionally so it was not easy for me to go and sleep with my husband." She had never met her bridegroom, 18-year-old Gedefaw Mengistu, before their wedding day. "I knew she was too young. I was in grade five but my father died and I was forced to stop school, get married and keep the family going," Mr Gedefaw told the BBC. The couple live in Ethiopia's Amhara Region - an impoverished rural farming area where half of all girls are married before they turn 15. "It's quite shattering to have met people who were married off," Archbishop Desmond Tutu told the BBC on a visit to the area. "In one case the husband was eight and the supposed wife was seven. I mean you want to say it's abominable," he said. The South African Nobel Peace Prize winner may have recently announced his retirement from public life but he is out fighting injustice again as one of the Elders - the group of eminent global leaders brought together by South Africa's former President Nelson Mandela. "I wasn't aware of the extent of the problem - and it is just fantastic that things are taking a turn for the better and incredibly so," he said. The archbishop was referring to the impact of government-led programmes in several dozen villages in the region which focus on delaying marriage. In this area, the lure of a bride price causes many families to push for early weddings. But there is another reason. "Fear of abduction is also a factor," said Alemseged Weldegerima from the Ethiopian government's Bureau of Women, Children and Youth Affairs. "We will try to stop abduction, not by using the police, but by increasing the awareness of the people." Beside a small eucalyptus plantation Archbishop Tutu was sharing a low wooden bench with two Elders who have broken the mould; the first woman to be president of Ireland, Mary Robinson, and the former prime minister of Norway, and ex-head of the World Health Organization, Gro Brundtland. They listened to young unmarried girls with big dreams, as well as women who had no chance of getting an education after being married off at a young age. Abay Asnakew is 12 and she has her life all mapped out. "When I finish my high school I will join university; I'll complete my BA degree and get a job and help my family. Then if my partner has a degree too then I will marry him," she says. "So what job do you want to do?" I asked. "Prime minister," she replied without hesitation. Look out Meles Zenawi! Abay has joined a girls' club known as Berhane Hewan - Amharic for "Light for Eve". She has learnt about issues which have prepared her to resist early marriage; personal health, HIV/Aids, and the medical complications associated with giving birth at a young age, like fistula. Female circumcision is also discussed and
summary: "I wanted to get an education but my parents were determined to marry me off," says Himanot Yehewala, an Ethiopian girl who was married five years ago at the age of 13.