They timed it right.
In Mozambique, the Malta Unida Pela Mudança shifters understood something important about their problem: it wasn't just that girls were being pushed into early marriage, it was when it was happening. Initiation rites season is the cultural moment when that pressure peaks; when families gather, traditions are invoked, and girls are most vulnerable to being married off. So that's when the shifters released their film.
The short film on the risks of early and forced marriage surpassed 50,000 views across Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. More significantly, it was broadcast on the country's most-watched television channels during prime time, the moment when families are most likely to be seated together in front of a screen. Shifters promoted it on social media, organised discussions after broadcasts, and engaged local youth to keep the conversation alive. The result was a campaign that didn't just reach families but reached them at the exact moment they most needed to hear it.
12-year-old Samir never realized how much words could hurt, even when said as a joke. However, that all changed when he joined the Monshaat Al-Maghalqa Shifters.
Through their campaign, Samir and his 11 friends developed 2 illustrated storybooks that used deeply relatable and personal stories about the impact of verbal violence.
Gradually, Samir started paying close attention to how he speaks to friends, stopped using hurtful words even jokingly, began standing up for classmates experiencing bullying, and rallied his friends to show collective disapproval for bullying. He became a source of support and kindness in his family, among his friends, and within his community.
“Samir has changed a lot. He listens better, talks to us more, and even encourages me when I’m tired. I love when he tells me that he will try again even if his grades are not perfect”.
– Samir’s Mother
"I learned that one word can lift us up to the sky, and another word can bring us all the way down to the ground."
A Child during their campaign event
At the same campaign, a mother attended an awareness session. During a "positive and negative words" activity, a mother who often called her son "a failure" saw the exact words she used pop up. Seeing it displayed in front of her made the harm viscerally real, and she committed on the spot to replacing negative labels with encouraging language.
An Bao Loc is an ethnic minority student at Bao Thang Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities in Lao Cai, Vietnam. Before SHIFT, he stayed silent in groups, voice trembling when he had to speak, moving slowly in situations that demanded quick thinking. He had convinced himself that doing well in class was enough; that leadership and self-expression were dreams that belonged to someone else.
The campaign he joined tackled verbal violence in his own school: the casual cruelty of nicknames, of "just joking," of words that left marks nobody could see. Working on it changed how he saw himself. He stopped dismissing his own opinions. He took on responsibilities, voiced ideas that weren't yet perfect, and learned to stay calm when the pressure rose.
"The greatest change wasn't just in my soft skills; It was my self-perception. I began to understand that shyness is not a permanent weakness, and my background does not define my limits. Maturity is not the absence of fear… it is the courage to keep walking even when you are afraid."
– An Bao Loc, Shifter, Vietnam
Across every country in the 2025 cohort, the most committed campaigners were rarely the ones who started out confident. They were the ones who started out scared of crowds, of judgment, of not being enough.
SHIFT didn't remove those fears. It gave young people something urgent enough to do that the fears stopped being the point. They ran the campaign anyway, and in doing so, became someone their communities hadn't seen before.
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They timed it right.
Xin chao! We are Lao Cai Shifters, a coalition of four youth-led teams across Lao Cai Province united by one mission: ending verbal violence in schools.
Vietnam