Cape Town, South Africa, May 2026. On the morning of 17 April, 32 girls from Ocean View Secondary School packed their bags and left their community for three days. Some had never slept away from home. Some arrived quiet, arms crossed, waiting to see if this would be worth their time. By the time they left Soetwater Environmental Centre on 19 April, something had shifted. You could see it in how they stood.
Girls on Fire, Becoming Camp, April 2026. Photography: GCC Foundation.
These are the founding cohort of Girls on Fire, the GCC Foundation’s dedicated girls’ mentorship pathway, and the first group of young women in the Deep South of Cape Town to be given this particular investment. Not a workshop. Not a talk. A structured, deliberate three-day foundation camp followed by twelve months of mentorship, built around a single conviction: that every young woman deserves to know her own worth before the world tries to define it for her.
The communities where GCC works
The communities where GCC works are ones where that definition arrives early and uninvited. Social comparison, relational conflict and economic pressure shape identity at a stage when identity is still forming. Teen pregnancy is not a distant statistic in these streets. It is a present reality for girls who were never taught what they are worth. Girls on Fire does not arrive after the fact. It builds the foundation first.
Three days that shift something
The Becoming Camp at Soetwater was that foundation. Over three days, 32 girls were placed into teams, each with a dedicated mentor. They worked through identity, self-worth and personal standards in sessions designed to be honest rather than comfortable. On the first evening, they wrote letters to their younger selves, naming the narratives they had been carrying, and released them. On the final day, every girl completed a single statement she would carry into the year ahead: from here on, I choose to become a woman who…
Teams at work during the Becoming Camp, April 2026. Photography: GCC Foundation.
“When a young woman understands her worth, her decisions change. Girls on Fire creates the structure and consistency required to build that. Not in a weekend, but over time.”
Tarryn Hallaby, Founder and CEO, GCC FoundationWhat the families saw
The families felt it too. One parent described what she saw when her daughter came home.
“My daughter doesn’t normally connect with anyone, but she connected with her mentor and the group in a special way. She came back more confident and more open. As a parent, I’m grateful to see her so happy.”
The winning team at the Becoming Camp, April 2026. Photography: GCC Foundation.
What happens next
The camp was the beginning. Each of the 32 participants now enters twelve months of structured mentorship covering personal development, career readiness and practical life skills, with a formal awards ceremony at the close of the year in front of family and community.
Graduates who are ready are then invited to return and walk alongside the next cohort in a supported role, under the guidance of the GCC team. Women from the same community, who faced the same pressures, now standing in front of the next group of girls. It is how the model sustains itself.
Girls on Fire sits within GCC’s Youth Mentorship pathway, one of three pillars through which the GCC Foundation builds long-term change in the Deep South. Every place on the pathway is fully sponsored, making it accessible to young women in communities where this level of investment would otherwise be out of reach.
The GCC Foundation is actively seeking partners who want to invest in a model with measurable, lasting impact.
ENDS
About the GCC Foundation: The Global Centre for Change Foundation NPC is a South African non-profit company working in the Deep South of Cape Town. Through three pillars of work, GCC builds identity, character and long-term opportunity in communities where young people face the highest levels of systemic risk. Girls on Fire and Roots to Resilience are the two pathways within its Youth Mentorship pillar, designed for the distinct realities facing young women and young men in these communities.
Media release granted for all images. Parental consent obtained for all minors pictured.