School Partnerships
Sister Schools creates meaningful partnerships between schools (K-12) in the Puget Sound region and Uganda. We connect students through powerful, personal experiences in compassion, generosity, and shared learning.
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By engaging directly with their peers abroad, students develop a deep sense of global citizenship—not through abstract lessons, but by witnessing firsthand how generosity transcends borders and how much we can learn from one another. Along the way, they discover that regardless of background, every student has something to give and something to discover.
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We currently partner with dozens of schools across the Pacific Northwest, especially in the greater Seattle area. We would love to partner with YOUR school too! Keep reading to learn more about our program, and to sign your school up!
Fall Presentation
First, your school will host a Fall Presentation where students learn about life for students at their sister school in Uganda. Through pictures, videos, and an engaging interactive presentations, your students get a glimpse of life on the other side of the globe. They will learn a few phrases in Luganda, witness unique forms of art, music, and dance, and consider both similarities and differences in their day-to-day life.
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Our presentation highlights Uganda’s rich cultures, while also introducing your students to the unique challenges their peers in Uganda face. With one of the youngest populations in the world, schools in Uganda are often extremely crowded, underfunded, and under resourced. Your students (and staff!) are asked to consider what school would be like if they didn’t have any books? How would they learn math if they had a chalkboard but no chalk? What would their classrooms be like if there were 100 other students, but only enough seating for 30?
Supply Drive and Collection Day
Next, your students are invited to participate in a supply drive for their Ugandan partner. For two weeks, they collect pencils, paper, books and crayons for the classroom as well as soccer balls and jump ropes for recess!
On Collection Day, Sister Schools returns to take individual pictures of students with their donated items. Each school brings in an average of 900 pounds of supplies each year!
Distribution
After the supply drive, we take care of all the logistics of sorting and shipping your donations to Uganda. After the shipment arrives, our Uganda staff distribute your items directly to your sister school.
As we distribute all the donations from your school, we make sure to take even more pictures of your donations getting in the hands of Ugandan students. In fact, we take pictures of the exact same items your students gave!
Return Presentation
At the end of the school year, we get to come back for your Return Presentation, where we show your students first-hand the difference they made in the lives of Ugandan children, and also let them experience the generosity of their Ugandan partners.
We show your students the photos of them taken on Collection Day with their donation item, right alongside the photo of that same item in the hands the Ugandan recipient on Distribution Day. As kids begin to recognize their friends and classmates, the atmosphere in the assembly changes – students are thrilled to see their own faces on screen, but even more excited to see the smiles their gifts created. Even if they could only give one pencil, they realize that they changed lives half-a-world-away.
Then, your students will also receive a gift from their sister school, reinforcing for your students the reciprocal nature of cross-cultural engagement, and helping them recognize that everyone has something to give and share with others.
Before they leave the assembly, Sister Schools encourages them to find new ways to serve communities. If they can change lives in Uganda, just imagine what they can do in their families, in their schools, and in their neighborhoods.
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