As the official launch of the 2008 Olympics commences and over 100 countries join together in sportsmanship, this event- a celebration of unity, is undermined by the cruelty that divides us between those who have a voice and those who are denied their most basic freedoms.

The New York Times reports that China selected 08.08.08 for the official launch of the Olympic games because the word “eight” sounds like the word for “good fortune” in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Yet for China’s (approximate) 40 million Burmese neighbors, this time conjures anything but the notion of good luck.

Twenty years and one day prior, marks the death of an estimated 3,000 peaceful demonstrators and the continued severity of a devastating military regime that commits the most gruesome of atrocities against its people.
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Recently, the Vital Voices staff had the opportunity to meet with one of our Vital Voices women, Unursetseg Tsedev, and hear about her latest research findings. After spending a year as a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow at the University of Minnesota, where she researched issues in Mongolian sex trafficking, Unur is now returning home to start her own NGO. Before heading back, however, she took the time to introduce us to her country and the challenges confronting it.

Mongolia – with a population of 2.4 million people and 39 million livestock – is sandwiched between the giants of Russia and China. Unur shared with us that though Mongolia has a literacy rate of 98% and 65-70% of its higher educated students are women, sex trafficking is a serious problem in the country.

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After attending “Too Young to Wed,” a congressional briefing sponsored by the International Center for Research on Women, I can say that the problem of child marriage is much bigger than I had thought. Additionally, I am convinced that child marriage is a symptom of larger problems in developing countries, all of which are interrelated and stem from poverty.

We were welcomed by Tamara Krenin, the Director of Women and Population at the UN Foundation. The program began with a moving film called “The Bride Price,” providing the audience with background on child marriage, early pregnancies, and the general lack of opportunities that await girls all over the world.
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