Everyday life skills create waves of change

Sharing stories does so much more than entertain.

Storytelling informs. It builds empathy.  It nurtures skill-building. And it inspires action.

Through She Creates Change, Room to Read’s film and multimedia initiative that illustrates everyday life skills through stories of six remarkable girls from our Girls’ Education Program, adolescents learn about the varied challenges and barriers to education faced by their peers around the world, whose stories of resilience, leadership and creativity illustrate the power of life skills in creating change.

We’re seeing the impact of this life skills curriculum and content in action in a growing number of learning spaces.

In Kenya and Malawi, Room to Read partners — Polycom Girls in Kenya and GAYO and CRECCOM in Malawi — continue to incorporate She Creates Change films, lesson plans and complementary educational content into learning sessions. In 2025, the first year of this work, we conducted interviews and focus groups with participating adolescents and facilitators to better understand the impact of this work. Preliminary results show the majority of students positively engaged with the materials and demonstrated improvements in life skills like decision making, self-confidence and resilience. Students also expressed greater motivation to study, improved abilities to work with their classmates, and increased abilities in financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

These changes in attitudes and behaviors reveal something transformational ― our She Creates Change life skills curriculum and content is successfully inspiring adolescents to believe in themselves, stand up for the life they want and chart their own paths.

📷 Photos courtesy of CRECCOM and PolyCom Girls

In Pakistan, girls are reinforcing critical communication and leadership skills, honing their self-confidence to challenge social norms and work together to create safer, more supportive learning environments. Inspired by Dewmini’s story from Sri Lanka, students in several partner schools in Pakistan created 3D models and storyboards to explore climate resilience and how to address potential climate-related impact on their families.

Now, after engaging adolescents across 77 schools, our partners in Pakistan ― including Punjab Education Foundation and Pakistan Girl Guides Association ― are expanding this work to 40 additional schools in 2026, so that a growing community of adolescents builds, strengthens and exercises skills that enable them to lead dignified lives of their own choosing — and be changemakers that lead us to a brighter future.

📷 Photos courtesy of AKhuwat, ILMpact, Pakistan Literacy Project and Sindh Education Foundation

In Nigeria, we are launching similar partnerships in 2026, with plans to engage approximately 10,000 adolescents of all genders through partner programming. We are in the final stages of selecting a local partner to deliver this work in Kano State in collaboration with the Kano State government. Guided by the successful model shaping this work in Kenya, Malawi and Pakistan, we will guide partners and key stakeholders in adapting and contextualizing She Creates Change life skills curriculum and content for the local setting, and will conduct training strengthen local capacity to deliver the life skills curriculum and content in both formal and non-formal education settings. 

And in Tanzania and Vietnam, She Creates Change has further strengthened our Girls’ Education Program as a resource within our life skills curriculum, animating previously established lessons with real-life stories. The series is also extending life skills curriculum to adolescents outside of our Girls’ Education Program; in Tanzania, She Creates Change is poised to reach more than double the number of adolescents through delivery with other local organizations, rapidly reinforcing life skills among students faster than would ever be possible through our direct programming alone.

“These videos have opened the girls’ minds. They now speak with more confidence; I have seen girls become more expressive. They are no longer afraid to ask questions or share their feelings,” shared an educator from a Girls’ Education Program school in Tanzania

Across contexts, one thing remains clear: Sharing stories consistently and effectively nurtures life skills, and life skills are game-changing.    

Room to Read and our partners around the world look forward to the future transformations and action sparked by storytelling through She Creates Change, with stories that boldly illustrate what is possible when life skills aren’t just taught but celebrated.

How to create lasting change