NEWS
Empowering Young Leaders: ECCO Foundation Runs GerakDampak Academy to Prevent Child Marriage in NTB
Child marriage remains a deeply entrenched social challenge that severely impacts youth development, educational continuity, and gender equality across West Nusa Tenggara (NTB). To address this systemic issue directly at the grassroots level, ECCO Foundation was selected as the regional implementation partner to run the GerakDampak Academy in NTB, an impact initiative developed by the Indika Foundation through their nationwide Impact Collaboration network.
While the Indika Foundation selected elite regional representatives to launch this program simultaneously across Indonesia, ECCO Foundation took the lead in customizing and executing the academy to fit the unique socio-cultural landscape of Lombok and the wider NTB province.
An Intensive Incubator for Youth-Led Social Action
The GerakDampak Academy operates as a high-impact youth leadership and social action incubator. The intensive program is specifically structured to enhance critical thinking, cultivate peaceful advocacy mindsets, and equip students with the formal project management tools required to design and execute real-world interventions within their home communities.
The core philosophy driving this collaboration is that young people are not merely future leaders—they possess the capacity to execute professional, systemic social change today. Rather than relying on top-down awareness campaigns, the academy guides students through a rigorous framework of root-cause analysis, community mapping, and project deployment to dismantle the drivers of early marriage.
Quantifiable Milestones: Measuring Regional Impact
Running from July to November 2025, the academy focused its collective energy on a vital mission: preventing child marriage and protecting vulnerable youth across NTB. The initiative achieved widespread, measurable success, transforming student mindsets and delivering direct community advocacy.
Impact Metric
| Program Achievement Data |
|---|---|
Total Student Reach | 82 young leaders trained across 20 regional schools in NTB |
Critical Thinking Output | 70 comprehensive research essays written analyzing regional social issues |
Selected Innovators | 27 elite participants selected to move into advanced project implementation |
Direct Interventions | 5 custom social action plans designed and fully deployed to prevent child marriage |
Total Beneficiaries | Approximately 400 community members directly reached by youth-led field campaigns |
Building a Sustainable Shield Against Child Marriage
By the conclusion of the academy, all five youth-designed action plans were fully executed on the ground, proving that localized, peer-to-peer advocacy is one of the most effective tools for social change. By empowering young people to lead the conversation around child protection, educational rights, and gender equality, ECCO Foundation and the Indika Foundation are successfully building an active safety net—driven entirely by the very generation it protects most.