Sister Schools began with one individual, Terry McGill.  While traveling in East Africa with a sports organization, McGill saw the incredible poverty and hardship resulting from twenty years of civil war and a ravaging AIDS epidemic in the small country of Uganda.  He was forced to ask a very personal question,  “If I really am the kind of person I like to think I am, then what should I do about this?” 

McGill returned home wondering what he should do next.  Several friends teaching in Seattle area public schools invited him to share the images of Ugandan school life with their students.  After seeing pictures of the conditions in Ugandan schools and orphanages, children at every school asked, on their own initiative, if they could send things to help on McGill’s next trip to Uganda.  Expecting to receive a few items he could fit into an extra suitcase, McGill agreed.  The response from children was overwhelming, far surpassing anything McGill or school officials anticipated.  Several hundred pounds of school supplies, clothing and toys were collected at each school.

McGill returned to Uganda carrying what he could, distributing it to the schools and orphanages he had shown students back home.  The impact on the children in Uganda, and on their teachers and caregivers, was incredible.  Certainly there was gratitude and appreciation for the gifts.  But there was something more.  There was amazement on the part of Ugandans at the knowledge that so much was accomplished by the personal gifts of individual children.  There was a rekindling of hope as they saw what could be accomplished when people joined together in a common purpose, even when they were only children.  There was also an incredible feeling of responsibility;  a commitment to care for each item and put it to the best possible use.

McGill formed Sister Schools because he saw the incredible impact person to person giving had on the children in our own schools.  He saw the change in attitude, the sense of accomplishment,  the confidence our children gained when they helped another person in a personal, intimate way.  He founded Sister Schools because he felt the energy and excitement in children as they left the program.  He saw their desire to do more.  He saw their need to do more.

In the years since his first trip to Uganda in 1988, McGill has spoken in more than seventy-five schools to thousands of students and teachers.  More than 150,000 pounds of supplies have been sent by U. S. school children to their counterparts in Uganda and El Salvador.  Every time he speaks in a school he still sees the same thing.  He still sees the incredible, life-changing impact of neighbor to neighbor giving; even if one neighbor is half a world away.  Furthermore, he is convinced that our own cities and communities are the ones that benefit the most as children leave Sister Schools programs: still excited, still confident, still convinced that they can make a difference; that they can help a neighbor.