Michelle Obama, Amal Clooney, Melinda Gates join forces to end child marriage

As one of the most influential women anywhere in the world, former first lady Michelle Obama has joined forces with fellow powerhouse leaders Melinda Gates and Amal Clooney to combat the problem of child marriage with the aim of ending the practice within a generation, as the BBC reports.

The trio announced a collaboration among their respective foundations last year and recently traveled to Malawi and South Africa to put a spotlight on the issue once again.

Though the United Nations has cautioned that the controversial custom is unlikely to disappear for several more centuries, the group of three is pouring significant resources into their bid to eliminate child marriage in their lifetimes.

For Mrs. Obama, the problem is eminently solvable, provided the will to do so is effectively harnessed by those with the power to help.

“It is an issue that can be solved tomorrow. It could happen in less than a generation,” she said, according to the Daily Mail.

Working together, the foundations spearheaded by each of the three high-profile women have their focus trained on provided opportunities for women in countries such as Malawi, which, according to the Girls Not Brides non-governmental organization, has among the highest child marriage rates in much of Africa.

In Malawi, roughly 42% of all girls are married before they reach age 18, and that is something Obama, Gates, and Clooney believe needs to end.

During their recent trip to the region, the women sought to bolster the work already being done at a grassroots level to curb the child marriage rate and to have personal discussions with women and girls whose own life experiences involved marriage at a young age.

Each of the three powerhouse Americans work with foundations focused on the needs of women around the world, making this issue a natural fit on which they could join forces to make a difference.

Clooney, an international human rights lawyer, told the BBC of the connection she shares with Obama and Gates, “It's been a really lovely and very organic partnership, and friendship, between the three os us.”

She went on, “In an early conversation with the Gates Foundation, I said, 'You're working on gender justice at a massive scale, but mostly you're not using law as a tool. You're looking at economics, and you're looking at health. Maybe we can form a partnership.'”

Gates also touted the complementary qualities and agendas that make the trio such a force for good, saying, “I've talked to a number of women who are older than me who made it as CEO, or CFO, in their company. And there's some regret that they didn't do it in concert with other women.”

“They didn't pull other women up and along with them. The generation that we've been part of -- Michelle and I are essentially the same age -- we've wanted to pull everybody up with us,” she added.

One potential future destination for Mrs. Obama – at least according to recent rumors – and one to which she would ascend on her own – could be the White House, with pundits such as Republican Sen. Ted Cruz (TX) among those who believe the Democratic Party is poised to tap her as a replacement for the aging Joe Biden on the 2024 ticket. Whether she would have any interest in accepting, however, is another matter entirely.