Gondokoro Girls Embrace Life Skills Training to Challenge Early Marriage and Build Confidence

(GONDOKORO ISLAND)—For many adolescent girls growing up on Gondokoro Island, conversations about their rights, leadership, and protection are rare. Instead, many face the risk of dropping out of school, being married off early, or growing up without basic knowledge about their health and well-being.

To help them build safer, healthier, and more independent futures, more than 30 adolescent girls and young mothers are taking part in a two-day life skills and protection training, where they are gaining practical skills to make informed decisions.

The sessions introduced participants to topics ranging from self-awareness and communication skills to personal hygiene, land rights, and protection against sexual and gender-based violence. For many girls attending the training, it was their first opportunity to openly discuss challenges affecting girls in their community.

The training also confronted early marriage, one of the biggest concerns facing girls in Gondokoro.

“This training is very important for the young girls, the adolescent girls, because it’s going to equip you with ways how you can prevent yourself from so many things, from sexual and gender-based violence to land rights and every bad thing that happens within the community,” said Dorothy Drabuga, executive director of Women Foundation for Humanity.

She encouraged the girls to know their rights, stay in school, and make informed decisions about their futures.

Beyond protecting themselves from violence, the girls were encouraged to see themselves as future leaders. Drabuga challenged long-held beliefs that leadership belongs only to men, recalling that during an earlier community engagement some participants said women could not become chiefs.

“I want to assure you today that leadership is for all of us, the young girls, young women, elderly women, it’s for everybody,” she said.

“I think in schools we have head girls, we have class monitors. This is how leadership starts. It’s not only for men, but leadership is for both men and women.”

She also urged the girls to speak up whenever their rights are threatened, including when they face pressure to marry before they are ready.

“If someone forces you into early marriage, you have the right to refuse. What you learn during these two days will help you throughout your life,” she said.

Martha Poni, a senior woman teacher at the JCC Primary School branch on Gondokoro Island, said the training filled a gap she sees every day in the classroom.

“I am very happy with this training,” Poni said. “This is the first time we have had this kind of program in our community, and I hope there will be more because our learners need this knowledge.”

She said many girls struggle with basic life skills, including personal hygiene, because they have never received formal guidance outside the classroom.

“They don’t even know how to take proper care of their bodies,” she said.

As teachers, she said they try to teach learners about cleanliness, but the training reinforces those lessons and gives them confidence to ask questions.

Poni believes such programmes can help girls remain in school and make better decisions as they grow into adulthood.

“We welcome organizations that come to support our community,” she said. “When girls receive this knowledge, they are better prepared for the future.”

The training was organized by the Women Foundation for Humanity and funded by the German government, co-funded by the European Union and implemented by GIZ.