Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi is home to more than 60,000 refugees from neighboring countries who have escaped violence, conflict, and persecution.
Life in the camp is challenging. Economic opportunities are limited, education is not guaranteed, and recent cuts to international funding have placed even greater strain on already stretched resources.
For girls, these circumstances can be especially difficult. Lack of access to menstrual hygiene products, limiting stereotypes about their potential, and systemic and cultural barriers make it more difficult for them to stay in school, achieve their dreams, and determine their own futures.
To address these challenges, we’ve been operating our signature program, GLOW Club, in Dzaleka since 2023 — and recently tripled our investment in 2026 to provide 300 girls in the camp with mentorship, support, and leadership skills.
The impact has been extraordinary.
Here are four powerful stories from girls in Dzaleka Refugee Camp who have used their voices to create lasting change in their own lives and in their community, told in their own words.
These interviews have been condensed and edited for clarity.
Darlene’s Story
Before joining GLOW Club, I lacked school fees, and I stopped going to school for one year. My confidence was low, and I didn’t know how to ask for help or advocate for myself. Attending GLOW Club sessions is when I started building my confidence, because it’s a place where girls understand our rights.
GLOW Club taught me about the power of girls, and how to understand the world. It changed my life. It helped me realize that I have a voice to speak with people — especially community leaders, parents, and also girls — to say that education is a right, not a privilege.
When I started building my confidence, I started going on campaigns, telling community leaders and parents that us girls need to be going to school.
So now, I am continuing with my education, because I spoke up to community leaders. And now I have the support to continue with school.
Education is good. If I couldn’t go back to school, maybe I would be married by now. Because of GLOW Club, I’m now back in school and I’m continuing my education.
I think my story can teach a lot of girls, even parents and community leaders, that if a girl has support, she can break any barrier so she can achieve her dreams.
Deborah’s Story
Before I started GLOW Club, going to school was very hard for me because I didn’t have menstruation products. When I was on my period, I would stay home for a week. I even started thinking that maybe I should quit school.
When I joined GLOW Club, I learned confidence, and our mentors taught us that we should not stop school because of our periods. They even had a pad-making workshop with us, where they taught us how to make pads out of locally available materials, which helped me a lot and a lot.
I learned how to make pads using our local materials — simple materials. I started making my own pads, and I stopped skipping school. And I taught my sisters how to make it, too, and my fellow students at school, neighbors, even girls in our community.
Whatever I learn in GLOW Club, I make sure to teach others so it can be ongoing work. It shouldn’t stop here. You have to share with others.
I tell other girls, “Girls, we need to be confident! We should not be like the way we were in the past. We should move forward. We should try to make our future a bright future. It shouldn’t be a future of crying every day.”
GLOW Club helped me a lot. I appreciate the education I’ve been provided. We’ve learned more things than we ever thought possible. It’s been very, very important for us.
In our future, we don’t know where we’re going to be. I don’t know who I’m going to be. There are different chapters of life. What I get in my mind, I won’t forget it. Everywhere I go, I will use it. You can help other people.
I want to thank GLOW Club and all of our supporters because we have all learned something. And there are other people who want this chance as well. We are 100 girls. That’s not even 1% of the camp! But if it continues, we can add other girls, and they will teach others. They will understand the world, and menstrual hygiene.
Christine’s Story
Entering GLOW Club was like a dream.
Some of the things that I had wanted to accomplish weren’t fulfilled because I had no platform to stand on my own and speak out my views that I had inside me.
I had a dream of helping other people like me living with disabilities. But I had no people who were supporting or encouraging me.
A friend of mine told me about GLOW Club. I had fear, because I didn’t think I was strong. But I joined. After entering GLOW Club, I had to sit down and ask myself, “What are my passions? What are the things I can do in the future to help my community?”
People living with disabilities don’t always have the capacity to stand up and speak out. So I had to stand up and speak on behalf of people living with disabilities here in the camp. I had to request the community leaders to give people living with disabilities their rights and resources.
Before, we were discriminated against. We weren’t given chances. People thought we weren’t able to do anything. We weren’t even able to go to school.
Some don’t understand why they were born. They even discriminate against themselves. They think, “We are not able to do something. But if there could be someone to hold us up and give us hope, we can do anything.”
I advise them in my community and at school, give them lectures about life so they can understand why they were born. We weren’t born without a purpose. We were born with a purpose.
GLOW Club gave me a chance to understand the situation and understand myself. It gave me hope.
For my future, I hope to open my own center for people living with disabilities. Even if you are disabled, you can also build a future. You can lift up others. You can make something perfect in your community.
Loyce’s Story
Life as a refugee is not easy at all.
There are many challenges. In the camp, we rely on the World Food Program (WFP) for food. Our parents don’t have permanent jobs — They just earn small wages, so the money isn’t enough for school supplies, school fees, and materials for girls. Since we are refugees, we don’t get adequate money to buy all of that stuff, so sometimes it’s hard.
Some girls aren’t going to school because they lack the supplies. Their future is ruined because of this life.
I grew up here in the camp, watching girls get married at a very young age. Girls getting pregnant, dropping out from school. I knew I had to do something to help my fellow girls, but the problem was that I lacked the confidence to stand up and speak for them.
Then, there came this club: The GLOW Club program. I joined. At first, I was nervous. I had no confidence. But through the sessions, I gained the confidence and passion to become an advocate for girls’ rights and leadership.
In GLOW Club, we talked about how the community sees girls: weak, not strong, can’t do anything without someone to back them up. But through the sessions, I realized that we are strong on our own. We were born with the power within ourselves. We don’t need to believe what others say about us. We have to know that we girls are powerful. We can do better than what people think because we are born with the power within.
GLOW Club has become a home. It is a safe place. You meet girls from different cultures, countries, backgrounds, traditions. You get to know them well. You learn that something that might look weird to you is important to others. You exchange cultures. It makes you feel like you’re one family. We are all one. GLOW Club feels safe. It feels like home. When I’m here, I feel like I’m with my family, so there’s nothing to fear.
Since joining the club, I have achieved a lot. I lead a group at school, and in the camp, I organize meetings with girls to help them through art: drawings, paintings, poems, anything! Just to help them stand on their own. I think art is the best way for expressing someone’s feelings, whether verbally or non-verbal.
I thank GLOW Club a lot, because now, you can see me speaking here. It’s because of them! I have become a confident girl now. I can speak to many people without fear, advocate for my fellow girls’ rights about stopping early marriages and early pregnancy.
I have learned a lot, and I’d like to say thank you. I appreciate these sessions a lot because they have lifted me up. I was at the bottom, but now I’m up. And I would like to continue helping my community to raise my fellow girls up. They should be heard also.
They should know that they are not just birth-givers, caretakers, or homemakers. They can be something much better than what we think. If they just believe in themselves, then everything is possible. All we need is self-confidence to lift others up. And since I got that chance — I was lifted up — I want to help my fellow girls to be up also.
We were born with the power within ourselves. We don’t need to believe what others say about us. We have to know that we girls are powerful.
I can’t even imagine my life without GLOW Club. It has helped me a lot. Because one thing that was hurting me was to see girls getting married at early ages. Yesterday, it was your friend. And then you start imagining: Maybe tomorrow it will be me. My future can be ruined. What about my dreams? Will they end here?
Without this club, maybe I would have already been married.
I would like to see girls being free to dream and achieve what they want to. Girls are still underestimated. They are still seen as weak. I would like the whole world to value girls. They should know that girls also need to be respected. If you just give us one chance, we will show you the unexpected. We are more powerful than you ever imagined.
So I would like to see a world where girls are valued, young and old. Where their potential is realized. To see a world where girls are free to be, to dream, to aspire, to achieve. A world where their dreams can come true.
A world where people tell girls, “You are limitless. Reach wherever you want.”
To learn more about our programming in Dzaleka, read Witnessing the Human Impact of USAID Cuts on a Refugee Camp Left Behind.
Global Catalyst mentors girls around the world to become powerful advocates and confident leaders. Our signature program, GLOW Club, connects girls in some of the world’s most underserved areas with trusted local mentors and a safe space to express themselves as they develop their agency, find their voice, and build their power. Since our founding, we’ve ignited the power of more than 100,000 girls, sparking a growing movement of youth-led change that is transforming communities — and the world — for the better.
