“I am confident you have almost halved their social challenges and [they] will face the world on a better built foundation,”

Global Leaders Primary School is among the best performers in Primary Leaving Exam (PLE) test scores in their district during one of the most difficult years on record. Here’s how your support made it possible:

At Far Away Friends, we pride ourselves in collaborating to prove what’s possible for communities in the most rural regions of Uganda. In our first quarter of 2021, just a year after COVID made everything seem impossible, we are proud to have already welcomed 116 students back to Global Leaders and are steadily returning stronger ever thanks to your support and Advocacy!

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 (one of our many programs supported by all of YOU and our Advocate Community) 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.

As an organization founded by, run by and (primarily) funded by women, today is a special day for the Far Away Friends community as we celebrate International Women’s Day — a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.

A quick update from Far Away Friends Co-Founder & Country Director, Collines Angwech, on how YOUR donations from our December 2020 "Raise to Reopen" Campaign are being utilized TODAY to make an impact on the Global Leaders campus in Namasale, Uganda!

Thank you to all of our incredible Advocates, supporters & friends who helped raise $30,000 to launch these construction projects so we can reopen Global Leaders Primary School safely for our students.

Thanks to the dedication of our community of monthly Advocates, we were able to send enough funds to Uganda for our team to purchase temperature guns, build two tippy-tap hand-washing stations and coordinate the safe return of our Primary 7 class. For students like Ongom Abel, this was a very exciting moment after being out of school for more than eight months.

“We had no hope of coming back to school,” he shared in a brief video message recorded outside of Global Leaders’ P7 classroom, “but through the Distance Learning program our Teachers took to us the good advice of having more hope for the future.”

Over the past two months, the Teaching staff at Global Leaders Primary School (GLP) who are usually busy within the walls of their classrooms, have become somewhat of local celebrities in Namasale and across Amolatar District as they make their way across TWENTY THREE villages (yes, you read that right), gliding into their student’s compounds on the backs of two shiny blue motorcycles like the superheroes they are.

To our community of Advocates & Friends,

I can’t believe how time flies! We’re so excited to share with you the impact that you’ve made on the lives of our friends and family in Uganda during our third quarter of 2020.

This quarter taught us that anything is possible when we stand together. Because of the passion and dedication you’ve poured into our work over the past three months, YOU have ensured that our students are staying healthy, safe and engaged in learning during their time at home. Additionally, together we’ve kept ALL of our Ugandan staff employed and empowered with new strategies to protect their students and counsel families through this difficult time.

In early August, we asked all of you to join us in funding the launch of a new Distance Learning Program, equipping our Global Leaders (GLP) teachers with transportation to reach our students across Amolatar district. Together in just over a week and a half, our FAF USA Community funded the entire program and our teachers are now meeting with over 100 students every week! Check out our short documentary to learn more about how your support powered this program!

“Distance means so little when someone means so much…”

This quote has been part of our DNA at Far Away Friends since we first began working in Uganda in 2014 — but this year, it’s become a mantra. At the start of the Pandemic, we asked you to help us keep our Teachers employed & housed through this crisis and you SHOWED UP! Because YOU poured so much love & devotion into keeping our Teachers employed through this difficult season, they too have SHOWED UP in big ways, quite literally “going the distance” to ensure that our school and our students are cared for.

Despite COVID closing down GLP in early March, our Teachers have continued their work in caring for GLP and their students thanks to your support. Recently, our Uganda Country Director, Collines, got to sit down with our Teachers for a meeting to discuss how to develop a remote learning strategy and advocate for the protection of our students who may be facing trauma while at home.

To Our Incredible Community of Friends & Advocates:

As we wrap up the second Quarter of the year, I wanted to show you how you've helped make an impact on our mission to equip youth with the tools to break cycles of poverty forever.

Despite COVID derailing many of our plans for 2020, we're proud to have been able to quickly pivot our work thanks to your generous support to meet the needs of the communities we partner with in rural northern Uganda.

How Far Away Friends’ work aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals

As the rest of the world moves forward with easing COVID restrictions, families across Amolatar District are still facing a long road of challenges ahead. Awelo Mary (GLP student) and her Father shared that on top of losing his income due to COVID lockdowns, their family home and garden have been swept away by the recent floods along the shores of Lake Kyoga. Displaced, they are now staying with their neighbors.

When we created this video a few weeks ago, it was meant to raise awareness about the importance of Advocating for our friends in need across the globe.

Today, this message rings truer and more profoundly close to home than ever.

As protests rise around the world and in our own neighborhoods in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, we are standing with those who are making history in the fight against violence, injustice and inequality.

For families in the rural district of Amolatar in north-central Uganda, simply staying alive over the past several weeks has become a major challenge. Not only have COVID lockdowns caused families to lose all sources of income and skyrocketed food prices but now environmental dangers are threatening food security and overall health in the district.

Together with local volunteers, FAF Co-Founder & Uganda Country Director, Collines Angwech (left) packaged 4 Tons of posho to be delivered to vulnerable families in Amolatar District.

Humanity is now more connected than we’ve ever been, as COVID-19 affects every corner of the world.

While the pandemic has forced millions of Americans inside our homes (and some of us, out of our jobs) the pressure to “use this time to better yourself” (by working out, cooking, reading, meditating, spending more time with out kids, starting that business we’ve always wanted to create) it seems that many of us are becoming more concerned with our lack of inefficiency/productivity than we are about actually catching the virus.