Kenya: Suyia Soinatanai is not sure of her age. She might be eight or she might be nine. But there is one thing that the thin-framed Masai girl is certain of - she is not old enough to marry "It wasn't the right decision. I am too young," she says in the safety of the refuge where she now lives.
"If I had stayed at home my father would have given me away to be married. I know because my mother came to me and told me that I had to leave my home with my sister and come here."
The Masai are a proud tribe of nomads, who follow their cattle and goats from waterhole to waterhole. But they are suffering this year as a brutal drought grips this part of Africa, sending some 11 million people in Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Djibouti and Eritrea to the brink of famine.
Thousands of herders, who count their wealth in terms of animals, have lost everything as the landscape becomes cluttered with carcases.
So when Suyia's father lost three of his five cattle, he looked to the only other source of wealth in his family - his daughters' dowries.
Staff at the shelter in Kajiado, southern Kenya, say they have been inundated with girls such as Suyia and her sister fleeing marriage. They arrived in January after their mother brought them the 30km from their home in Olobelbel, a village deep in the heart of Masailand.
Priscilla Naisult Nangurai, who runs the refuge, said she had taken in 15 girls so far this year. Normally they arrive after reaching puberty, when they are judged ready to marry. "These are different. A lot of the ones arriving now are aged eight to 10 and it seems as if their parents simply cannot wait. Times are so very hard."
This year's drought is the result of years of failed rains, turning much of Kenya into a dustbowl. Some 80 per cent of cattle have died in some regions.
This season's rains finally arrived here last week. They came in a series of storms across the country, making roads impassable, flooding homes and hampering aid distributions.
While they will go some way towards restoring pasture and filling waterholes, they will not bring the cattle back to life. The aid agency Oxfam estimates it will take up to 15 years for some nomadic, pastoralist communities to recover.
Mrs Nagurai said she expected young girls to continue arriving at her shelter. "We don't see this trend ending any time soon," she added.
Masai girls marry young, even in good years. A bride can fetch five cows and maybe some cash for her family. The result is that some Masai, and other herding communities, value women somewhere beneath their animals.
"A woman fetches a bride price so a feeling has evolved among some families that the woman is a financial asset," said Mary Anne Fitzgerald, of Saidia, an agency that works with pastoralists in Kenya.
Many girls are denied access to education. Paying school fees for a child that will soon be married into another family is seen as a poor investment.
Suyia is one of the lucky ones. She is attending classes for the first time and hopes to be a teacher one day. Her father has visited her once at the shelter but she says her feelings towards him have been turned upside down by her experience.
"I still love him," she says quietly in her native Masai tongue. "But the love can never be the same as it was."