THEY BUILT IT TO OUTLAST THEM
The standard measure of a campaign is reach; how many people saw it, heard it, attended it. These campaigns were measured differently.
Their success wasn't what happened during the campaign. It was what happened after the Shifters left, after the camp ended. The work outlived the campaign because the campaign was designed to be outlived from the start.
When Shifters de KNB launched their campaign on breaking the silence around sexual and reproductive health, they knew from the start that their presence was temporary but the problem wasn't. They needed to build sustainability into the design itself.
That’s why, at each school, the Shifters established a nucleus: a small group of students with a trained focal point who would keep the messages on protection and early marriage prevention circulating after the Shifters couldn't return. Children joined voluntarily, after debates and radio discussions had already made them curious. Shifters stayed in contact with focal points to monitor progress and support ongoing activities.
What that looked like in practice: one girl, after attending three consecutive Champions of Change sessions, changed her daily routine, stepped away from risky situations, and then joined her school's nucleus to pass on the same information that had helped protect her. She became the campaign.
Follow their on going campaign here.
How do you make a conversation about harmful language travel beyond the students already in the room?
For Shifters at Le Hong Phong (Vietnam), their answer was a postcard series called "Break the Words": six episodes, designed by students, carrying messages about verbal violence in language that felt like it belonged to them. The postcards weren't kept within one school. They were shared across the platforms of every partner school in the province: Lao Cai High School, Cam Duong Vocational Center, and Bao Thang Boarding School for Ethnic Minorities. What started as one school's campaign became a unified front across the province.
The school administration took notice. The initiative was formally integrated into Le Hong Phong's regular extracurricular framework and recognised as a creative model for school psychology and student-led communication within the Lao Cai educational community. The campaign ended, but the postcard series continued into 2026. The "Positive Anonymous" mailbox, where students drop notes of encouragement to one another, delivered weekly without being read aloud, is still collecting messages today.
"Perhaps the most meaningful thing that empowerment has given me is faith. The faith that every other young person has the capacity to make an impact, even starting with very small steps.
When that faith is nurtured long enough, it doesn't stop with one individual; it spreads into communities that know how to listen, how to collaborate, and are ready to change the future together.”
Shifter, Le Hong Phong
Shifter from RAYWA (translates to ‘hope’) in Bhutan were themselves former participants turned facilitators who founded their campaign to address a specific gap: girls in grades 7 to 12 had almost no access to real-world STEM mentorship or career exposure.
Their response was a five-day immersive camp featuring drone technology, field mapping software, visits to Paro International Airport, and sessions led by female STEM mentors. Students left the camp naming careers like piloting, biomedical engineering, and software development as specific ambitions whereas previously there was only general curiosity.
But the more durable measure came afterward. Four school-based projects were launched by camp participants in their own schools. Students founded STEM clubs, initiated peer awareness campaigns on emotional health and safety, and began leading the kinds of sessions they had just attended. While the camp lasted five days, the clubs are still meeting today!
“Seeing young girls sharing their STEM ambitions after the campaign felt like we could really contribute to national girls' enrollment in STEM subjects.”
Pema Choezom, a core RAYWA memberThe real test of any movement is what happens once the initial spark has passed. By designing campaigns that are built to be outlived, these young leaders ensure their impact continues to grow through the hands of those they inspired.
Our final episode, Insight 5 explores the incredible, unforeseen results that occur when young people are finally trusted to lead the way.
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Global Impact Report 2025
Insight 1: They went where the power was.
Insight 2: They started with what scared them.
Insight 3: They timed it right.
Insight 4: They sparked the next wave.
Insight 5: They surprised everyone, including themselves.
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Muli bwanji! We are Ma Shifters, a youth-led movement that has spent three years transforming Petauke District from a place where nearly 40% of teenagers faced pregnancy into a community where taboos are breaking, parents are talking, and futures are being saved.
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