Fridah Mweete is sixteen years old, from Nachili Village. When her parents separated in 2023, the resulting family disruption left her without a stable home, and she moved in with her aunt. The transition came with a cost: without the support of both parents, and with her aunt’s household already stretched, there was no one to ensure she could continue her education. She finished Grade 5 and did not go back. For two years, school simply stopped, not because Fridah lost interest, but because the circumstances around her made it impossible to keep going.
In 2025, she moved to her father’s home. It was there that she heard about the Girls Action Forum.
The Girls Action Forum, implemented by People’s Action Forum (PAF) with Shanta Village Partners trained community mentors who give adolescent girls a structured space to reflect, set goals, and receive mentoring. Fridah joined in October 2025 and attended every session.
Within four sessions, her mentor noticed Fridah’s commitment. She visited Fridah’s father, encouraged him to support his daughter’s return to school, and then, using her own money, purchased the school uniform that had kept Fridah from enrolling. In January 2026, Fridah entered Grade 7 at Siyowi Primary School.
”I am excited about my mentor. She is the best. She used her own resources to buy my school uniform and facilitated my enrollment back to school.”
Fridah now attends class every day. She knows what she wants: to become a medical doctor. After years away from school, she is not just back, she is building toward a future she can name.
When she speaks about the Girls Action Forum, it is not with the language of a program participant. She speaks as someone who found herself through it, who discovered, in four sessions with a mentor who believed in her, that she still had a future worth fighting for.
”I thank God that the Girls Action Forum came to our area. It has helped me discover myself and know what I want in life.”
She has a message for other girls in her community: “I encourage others to participate in GAF because it changes lives.”
Fridah’s story did not begin with a government scholarship or a formal grant. It began with a mentor who noticed her, showed up at her father’s door, and spent her own money on a school uniform. The Girls Action Forum gave that mentor a framework, and gave Fridah a community that believed she could still reach her goals.
Your support helps Shanta Village Partners and People’s Action Forum keep the Girls Action Forum running in communities like Siyowi Ward, training mentors, sustaining sessions, and keeping the door open for girls like Fridah who simply needed someone to walk through it with them.