Over the past several years, Ethiopia has become one of the top “sending countries” in the international adoption market. But with the growing numbers of adoptions have come allegations of fraudulent paperwork and unethical recruitment of children for adoption—a practice dubbed “child harvesting” by the Ethiopian government.

Kathryn Joyce discusses her project “Casualties of Ethiopia’s Adoption Boom” and the impact this new “export industry” has had on the local population.

We’re highlighting our female journalists all week for International Women’s Day on March 8th.

We’re very proud and excited to announce the launch of a new and incredibly important project, Too Young to Wed: The Secret World of Child Brides, by world renown photographer Stephanie Sinclair.

In subsequent years I traveled to Nepal, Ethiopia, India and Yemen researching and photographing this issue for several publications, most recently for National Geographic. In almost every situation, I wanted to take the girl, throw her over my shoulder and get her out of there…

I hope people will hear the voices of these young girls, see these images and talk about what they have witnessed in this film. I believe those conversations will lead to actions on their behalf. There is a lot of work to be done on this issue, but change will come. It can be daunting, but it’s not impossible.

Take a moment to view powerful video above, and read more about her work: Too Young to Wed: The Secret World of Child Brides