Nearly 75% of teens in rural Uganda won’t finish school
Public schools in rural Amolatar, Uganda often lack the funding and support for essential resources kids need to make it to their graduation day. Girls are particularly at risk of dropping out early due to lack of menstrual hygiene resources, available toilets at school and peer mentorship, resulting in 1 in 4 girls becoming pregnant by age 19.
Through our Schools for Schools program, we’re partnering schools in rural Uganda with “Sister Schools” across the USA to help students develop cultural understanding, learn about ethical and locally led development, collaborate for global impact and help reduce teen pregnancy/drop out rates across Amolatar District through a multi-year Skills for Life course.
How It Works:
Through the launch of a Far Away Friends Clubs and school-wide service partnerships, we’re connecting schools across the United States with Far Away Friends Sister Schools in Amolatar, Uganda to build friendships and collaborative learning opportunities for youth that generate real-world change within a single school year.
Partnership & Education
Launch a Far Away Friends Club at your school! Your school will be paired with a “Sister School” in Amolatar, Uganda and together we’ll connect with students from across the world while gaining skills related to ethical global citizenship.
Collaboration
Together with your Sister School, you’ll choose your “Impact Project” for the year! Impact Projects include infrastructure or programs that are chosen, budgeted for, and designed by Ugandan students/Teachers and funded through student-led initiatives at US Sister Schools.
Ethical, Local Impact
The student collaborations & cross-cultural friendships built through Sister School partnerships help lift the quality of education by improving schools across rural Amolatar, Uganda every year. Participating schools might even have the opportunity to VISIT their Sister School in person!
Sister School Spotlight: Dakota Ridge
When students and Teachers at Dakota Ridge High School’s “Far Away Friends Club” learned about the needs of their sister school in rural Uganda, they committed to hosting monthly “challenges” like the Da Bomb Hot Wing Challenge which encourage students to vote with dollars for their favorite teachers to complete the challenge — all while raising money for their sister school! Way to go Dakota Ridge!
PAST PARTNER SCHOOL PROJECTS
Menstural Hygiene
We've partnered with AfriPads to deliver reusable sanitary pads & train girls on menstrual health & hygiene. Every year we distribute 150 pad kits and hold trainings at local primary, secondary & vocational schools.
WASH Projects
We work with community leaders and the District Education Office to identify schools in the area that are in need of infrastructure development. In 2018, we constructed six drainable toilets for Namasale Primary School, who previously only had one operational toilet for 1,000 students.
Teacher Training
Teacher absenteeism is high in Uganda, with more than 60 per cent of teachers not in the classroom teaching in over half of all Ugandan public schools (UNICEF). Investing in educators in rural areas is key to improving student outcomes which is why Teachers at our partner schools are able to attend all of our annual teacher trainings free of cost.
Namasale Primary School
While the number of children enrolled in primary school has grown since Uganda launched universal primary education in 1997, public schools across the country still lack the basic resources needed to ensure their students are successful. Because of this, many students (particularly girls) will not continue their education past Primary 7.
Located in the center of Namasale Town, Namasale Primary serves over 1000 students per day. At times this means there can be 70 students to one teacher in a classroom, and that many students — especially girls — don’t have access to the kind of WASH essentials that make the difference between them attending school each day or not.
In 2018, we partnered with Namasale Primary to construct six new drainable pit latrine toilets, as well as made the commitment to provide reusable AfriPads to the upper level girls every year to ensure that no girl ever misses school because of her period. Additionally, we partner with the teachers and staff at Namasale Primary to provide trainings and resources to raise the level of education children receive across the Amolatar District.
Agwingiri Girls School
During our 2019 Cultural Immersion Trip, in partnership with local leaders our team identified Agwingiri Girls School as our next School Outreach partner.
An all-girls secondary school just north of Global Leaders in rural Amolatar District, we learned that Agwingiri was enrolling boys because of the high drop out rate of girls due to a lack of adequate toilets for their students. As part of our School Outreach Program we were able to build a new, drainable "Dry Box" latrine for Agwingiri Girls School to ensure girls would never miss another day of school due to lack of adequate toilet facilities.
Become an Advocate to support projects like this one!
Become a Sister School!
We’re looking for passionate USA or UK based Teachers and Students to work with this year! Sign up to receive more information about how your school can launch a Far Away Friends Club or make an impact as part of our Sister Schools network.