Project title: Communication for behavior change (CHANGE)

This two-page case study describes USAID's work preventing the trafficking of Vietnamese girls and women, often to Cambodia, by improving their life options. The An Giang/Dong Thap (ADAPT) Alliance is a girls' education program that provides scholarships, vocational training, and job placement services to at-risk girls in three Vietnamese provinces along the Cambodian border. For women and girls who have escaped prostitution, ADAPT provides comprehensive reintegration services — including counseling, vocational training, income earning opportunities, and health care — to prevent them from being trafficked again.

This presentation describes the various factors leading to early marriage in three contexts -- in Bangladesh, among Guatemala's Mayan population, and among the Hmong and Dao minorities in Vietnam -- and the implications for programs aiming to delay marriage in these different contexts (for instance, in Bangladesh, dowry price rises with age). In addition, it explains that a lack of opportunities and social isolation are important common correlates of early marriage among disadvantaged ethnic minorities in Asia and Latin America.