📚 A Pencil, A Notebook, A Future: Our 2026 Goal for 4,000 Students in Uganda - DF East African Program
- Ric
- Jun 5
- 3 min read
Every February since 2022, Dear Future has shown up to remote classrooms in Uganda with one mission: to help children start the school year with dignity, hope, and the tools they need to learn.
In villages scattered across Eastern, Western, and Central Uganda, school often begins with little more than a blackboard and bright young minds. Many students arrive with only a single, tattered notebook from the previous year—if they’re lucky. Some come with pencil stubs just two inches long, or whatever writing tool they can find on the school grounds.
These are children who are eager to learn but face unimaginable limitations.
Changing That Story—Together
Since our first year, we've helped government and nonprofit schools; partnering with community NGOs in some of the most underserved areas, we've provided more than just school supplies — we deliver confidence, consistency, and care.
In 2022, we began by assembling grade-specific kits to our nonprofit schools, including 1 we built and endowed! But in 2025, we shifted strategy. In addition to supporting our nonprofit schools and orphanages, we created general school kits that allowed us to reach even more students, more equitably.
In these general kits, each student received:
6 notebooks
2 pencils
An eraser and sharpener
And we also left every school stocked with bulk pencils, toilet paper, crayons, glue and other necessities to distribute throughout the year.
The result? Over 4,000 children were served with the essential tools they needed to thrive in class, 3,500 of those were general kits.
2026: A Bigger Dream
This coming February, we want to go even further. Our goal is to reach again 3,500 students across Uganda with general kits, providing them with the same general-use school packages that have made such a difference already.
To do that, we launched our 2026 East Africa School Materials Fund. We’re raising $12,000 USD — and every single dollar brings us closer to that goal.
This funding will cover:
Supplies for individual students
Extra materials for schools to use all year
Transportation and distribution of materials to schools in the most remote areas in the western, central and eastern Uganda.
We’ll share a full breakdown of the budget in a graphic at the end of this post.
Why Now?
We raise funds now — in June — because the school year in Uganda starts in February. That gives us the time we need to coordinate with school leaders, purchase bulk materials at a fair rate, and make the long trips into remote regions where cars rarely go.
But something beautiful happens when we provide pencils and notebooks, or a child receives a letter from their penpal — a companion program of Dear Future; we see hope in the smiles.
We feel the joy of connection.
And we hear the voices of children who feel seen.
Help Us Make It Happen
The best part? It only takes about $3 to provide a complete school kit.
That means:
$30 equips 10 students.
$300 supports 100 students!!
And together, we can reach 4,000 children with the tools they need to learn and succeed.
📊 2026 East Africa Budget Breakdown
Here’s where your generosity goes:
Total goal: $12,549.73 ** estimated.
This includes:
Individual support for 6 schools and two orphanages.
General packs reaching thousands of students!
Operational costs for transportation, logistics, and distribution to remote areas
Thank you for standing with us.
Thank you for believing in children you may never meet—because you know that every child deserves a fair start.
With deep gratitude,
Ric Juarez
East African Program
Founder, Dear Future
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