The following is an edited press release from Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School: 

The recent fundraising efforts of Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School’s (RFH) Global Women Empowerment organization will facilitate the education of two girls in Uganda and empower others around the world in different ways.

The more than $2,000 raised will be funneled to Change A Life Uganda’s Tuition for Tots-to-Teens to help the girls, Daisy and Patricia, finish high school and Global Women Empowerment, a student organization at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School, recently completed a highly successful fundraiser in support of Change A Life Uganda’s Tuition for Tots-to-Teens.

The fundraising effort, which included the sale of handmade Ugandan bracelets as well as lollipops, raised over $2,000. The collected funds will allow two girls, Daisy and Patricia, to finish high school and attend three years of primary school, respectively.

Last year, during its first year as an RFH organization, Global Women Empowerment sold bracelets with the message “Education Is Empowerment” and raised $1,000. This allowed Daisy — an 18-year-old who began her formal schooling at a boarding school 19 miles from her home at the age of six — to attend one year of high school.

With the funds raised through the recent bracelet and lollipop sale, Daisy will be able to finish her last two years of high school. Daisy, who wants to become a nurse and says that she would most likely be married if she were not attending school right now, plans to attend a four-year university after completing high school.

The recent fundraiser also allowed Global Women Empowerment to sponsor Patricia, an 8-year-old who dreams of becoming a doctor.

Patricia lives with her grandmother, because her parents, who sell roasted cassava along a highway and sometimes earn as little as one dollar a day, live so far from the school. With the money raised by Global Women Empowerment, Patricia will be able to attend the three years of primary school.

Additional fundraisers held this past fall by Global Women Empowerment included a bake sale that resulted in a donation of more than $100 to the Women’s Fund of the Blue Ridge, as well as a screening of the film Honor Diaries.

The screening of the documentary that explores violence against women in honor-based Middle-Eastern societies, raised over $350.

Those funds were split equally between St. Joseph’s Indian School and Heifer International, a charity working to end hunger around the world by providing livestock and training to struggling communities. That donation enabled the founding of a women’s self-help group as well as the purchase of a Biogas wood-burning stove.

RFH Global Women Empowerment officers are: Hope Haywood, Annie O’Brien, Alexanda Siwulec, Shoshana Swell, Sarah Turi and Payton Wall. RFH Social Studies teacher Christie Ferraris serves as club advisor.

For more information on Change A Life Uganda’s Tuition for Tots-to-Teens, visit changealifeuganda.org.