When Akec Makur Chuot first met her younger half-sister, she saw a happy and curious 10-year-old girl with so much potential.
But at just 15 years old, Makur Chuot’s sister, Mary*, was married off to an Australian man more than double her age.
Makur Chuot, 32, was the first African-born player in the AFLW and retired last year after 38 games since 2016, variously representing the Fremantle, Richmond and Hawthorn football clubs.
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She was born in South Sudan but grew up in a Kenyan refugee camp and moved to Australia in 2005.
Her half siblings, from her father’s side, remained in South Sudan where, Makur Chuot said, they lived simple village lives.
In 2013, Makur Chuot travelled back to her family’s village in South Sudan and met 10-year-old Mary for the first time.
Mary was an active young girl, who was constantly running around, being cheeky and living in the moment.
“She was like any other kid, happy, playing, helping (her) mum,” Makur Chuot said.
“She would ask me so many questions, and she would laugh at me because my Dinka (mother-tongue) is broken.
“(She was) a beautiful kid with so much to offer the world, that’s what I remember when I met her.”
Five years later, Mary was married off to an Australian man who was travelling back and forth between the two countries, while she remained in South Sudan.
When Makur Chuot’s mother in Australia told her of the union, she was “shocked, saddened and really angry”.
“I felt really powerless at the time and felt like my family and my elders really let down my little sister at the time,” Makur Chuot said.
“They enabled for her childhood to be taken away.”
Makur Chuot claims the Australian man may have offered Mary’s family money, which motivated them to marry her off at such a young age.
“(He) used the power he has and the money to basically go and do these evil things overseas, which I’m pretty sure a lot of communities face this,” she said.
Mary is now living in South Sudan as a single mother of two young children, divorced from her husband.
Makur Chuot said being married so young meant Mary could not finish her education and limited in taking opportunities to better her and her children’s lives.
“They’ve just kind of wasted her life for this selfish man. It’s really sad and heartbreaking,” she said.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) received 91 reports of forced marriage in Australia during the 2023-24 financial year.
Half of them involved underage victims.
In July, the AFP charged three men in Perth over the forced marriage of two teenagers, aged 13 and 15 years old, who were allegedly not allowed to date for cultural reasons, and told by the men they needed to marry.
The Australian government is urging schools and communities members to be more aware of the signs of forced marriage to help catch perpetrators and protect girls at risk.
World Vision estimates annually 12 million girls are married before they turn 18.
Makur Chuot is part of World Vision’s 1000 voices for 1000 girls campaign that aims to reduce violence against women by sharing the personal stories of victims.
The campaign shared the story of Neha from Nepal who was 14 when she received a marriage proposal from a rich man who told her parents they would not have to pay a dowry for his offer.
Despite her pleas and threats to throw herself in hot oil, Neha’s parents ordered her to go through with the marriage.
She ran away to her sister’s house, believing she would never see her parents again, but about the same time, Neha’s parents began training with a World Vision program that encouraged them to keep their daughters in school.
Neha was able to return home to continue her education without being forced into marriage.
Now 18, Neha works with World Vision to prevent child marriages in Nepal and has so far successfully saved three minors from marriage.
Makur Chuot was reminded of her sister Mary’s experiences when she heard Neha’s story, and was motivated to speak out against the crime.
She said communities in Australia and oversees needed to report suspects involved in child marriages, to prevent the lives of other young girls being ruined.
“I wish I knew, I could have reported this man. I didn’t know,” Makur Chuot said.
When Makur Chuot was growing up, her grandfather on her mother’s side was a bold advocate for her and her siblings to get an education.
When she went to South Sudan at 21, Makur Chuot said, people were questioning why she wasn’t married, but her grandfather stood up to them and said Makur Chuot was pursing her dreams — as she should.
Makur Chuot is now an advocate and inspiration for other young girls to follow their dreams.
“It’s important for people like myself to raise our voices and really speak up on this issue because it is an issue that is affecting so many young women,” she said.
“In order for it to end, we all need to be part of the solution and educate each other that it’s not OK, and it’s criminal, and you’re taking away a basic young girl’s human rights.”
World Vision chief executive officer Daniel Wordsworth said the main driving force behind child marriage was poverty.
“In most cases, what’s underlying this is a sense of parents’ and families and communities, in order to protect the wider community, they (feel they) need to do this.
“Sometimes they actually feel this is protecting the individual,” Wordsworth said.
“When a young girl is married like that, she loses all agency in her life really. She is pulled out of education, she looses the ability to have economic security for herself, and her future is severely limited,” he added.
He said role models like Makur Chuot “showed an alternative reality” and encouraged families to see different pathways to success for their children that did not involve marriage.
“When you see someone like Akec and young women powerfully moving into a life of meaning, purpose and security, it shows you a new pathway and means you can really fight for that.”
For its 1000 voices for 1000 girls campaign, World Vision is urging Australians to sponsor a child and help them access education and basic services such as health care.
About 2000 Australians have already pledged their support to the campaign.
Wordsworth said, despite many Australian feeling the crunch of inflation at the moment, 2024 had seen the highest number of child sponsorships in the last 10 years.
“Australians are amazingly generous and I’m always dumbfounded by this. In times of hardship, people’s empathy grows,” he said.
* Real name withheld for privacy