In a statement, Ms. Fore said ¨¨we have received credible reports of families offering daughters as young as 20 days old up for future marriage in return for a dowry.

UNICEF estimates that 28% of Afghan women aged 15-19 years were married before the age of 18, Ms. Fore stated.

“As most teenage girls are still not allowed to go back to school, the risk of child marriage is now even higher. Education is often the best protection against negative coping mechanisms such as child marriage and child labour.¨

For such a reason, UNICEF started a cash assistance program to help offset the risk of hunger, child labor, and child marriage among the most vulnerable families.

With this initiative, we plan to scale up this and other service programs in the months to come.

Other UN agencies such as the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Food Program now support the humanitarian response in Afghanistan.

The UN humanitarian appeal for Afghanistan only has 54% of financing, while UNICEF requested the support of international donors to reach $606 million to provide assistance to 11 million Afghans.

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