A/HRC/26/22 32. Initiatives mentioned include direct financial support to families and guardians to encourage girls to continue their education;58 efforts to increase the enrolment and retention rate of girls in school, such as lower cut-off re-entry points and scholarships for girls; and programmes that provide non-formal education and vocational training, development of livelihood skills and life skills education.59 Several countries also indicated that they were supporting girls’ empowerment through programmes that target girls at risk of child marriage and those that are married. 33. Examples of the above-mentioned initiatives include the following: in Egypt, the Ishraq programme, which prepares out-of-school girls, including those forced to drop out of school upon marriage or motherhood, for re-entry into the formal school system;60 in Cameroon, the Government, working in partnership with civil society organizations, has signed a declaration with the Council of Imams on the importance of education for girls;61 in Turkey, the Government has adopted legislation that extends the length of compulsory education from 8 to 12 years;62 in Germany, victims or potential victims of child, early and forced marriage are empowered through educational and vocational opportunities to enable them to better defend themselves against being forcibly married and to seek out help;63 and in Nigeria, the Government’s early marriage programmes include scholarships, conditional cash transfers, economic empowerment and community mobilization.64 34. Several submissions highlighted how women’s organizations have mobilized to strengthen awareness of child, early and forced marriage. For instance, in Canada, there is a coalition called Network of Agencies Against Forced Marriage with approximately 80 members.65 UNICEF is increasingly deploying technology as a way of engaging adolescent girls and boys to become agents of change in their communities and nations. In Uganda, UNICEF U-report used text messages and mobile telephones to stimulate national debate on child marriage, teenage pregnancies and, especially, the issue of pregnant girls being asked to drop out of school.66 E. Awareness-raising 35. Several responses indicated that awareness-raising on the harms of child, early and forced marriage, including among men and boys, often contributes to promoting social norms that support efforts by girls and their families to delay the age of marriage. To address some of the underlying social norms and individual attitudes, some countries are showing signs of decreasing support for the practice amongst the wider society. For example, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, following televised community weddings and other community-level measures to raise awareness of the law criminalizing child marriage, a number of villages declared their collective commitment to ending the practice of child marriage through the signing of petitions.67 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 12 UNICEF submission. Submissions from the Red Elephant Foundation, p. 15 and Organisation of African Youth – Cameroon. GNP USA submission, p. 7. Commonwealth Secretariat submission, p. 14. ECPAT International submission, p. 16. Detailed examples of educational programmes of civil society organizations can be found in the ECPAT International submission. Submission from Germany, p. 2. ECPAT International submission, p. 21. South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario submission. UNICEF submission, p. 6. UNICEF submission.